Poland shot down a barrage of drones violating its airspace with the support of NATO allies overnight in the first known shots fired by the military alliance since Vladimir Putin launched his war in Ukraine.

“Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on X. “Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down.” Tusk later told his parliament that the incident was “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two.”

It’s not clear how many drones were shot down, but Tusk said 19 violations of Polish airspace were recorded over seven hours during a Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine. He called the incident a “large-scale provocation” but said he does not have “reason to believe we’re on the

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