Polish foreign minister says Vladimir Putin seeks to test west’s reactions without triggering full-scale war

Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, has said last week’s Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace was an attempt by the Kremlin to test Nato’s reactions by incremental escalations without prompting a full-scale response.

Sikorski confirmed that while the drones used in the incursion were capable of carrying ammunition, those that reached Poland were not loaded with explosives. “Interestingly, they were all duds, which suggests to me that Russia tried to test us without starting a war,” Sikorski told the Guardian in Kyiv.