NATO country Poland's shooting down of Russian drones on the Polish side of the border with Ukraine during the night towards Wednesday has received significant attention. Poland has closed parts of the airspace and Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called the government to a crisis meeting.
Despite this, Roger Djupsjö does not see the incident as an escalation.
Poland has warned
Poland has the right to defend its borders in the air and on land, he says.
This is something that Poland has warned about before, that these attacks will sooner or later affect Poland or enter Polish territory. If you send cruise missiles and other things near the border area, there is always a margin of error.
Whether Russia has acted intentionally or not is unclear, he says.
I do not think it has been the primary objective, but the goal has been to strike at some form of storage similar to the one on the Ukrainian side. Then, of course, you follow how NATO reacts.
Diplomatic measures
What reactions can be expected from the Polish side?
One will, of course, warn diplomatically that this is not sustainable and not acceptable. But I think for my part that Russia expects that NATO will not respond with more than diplomatic measures.
This also means that the Russian side can make this gamble. One is aware of the risk and takes it fairly calculated.
