The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting at Poland's request to discuss this week's violation of Polish airspace, the Polish foreign ministry said on Thursday.
The announcement follows an unprecedented operation in which European Union and Nato member state Poland, backed by Nato allies, shot down suspected Russian drones that violated its airspace on Wednesday.
"(We are) drawing the world’s attention to this unprecedented Russian drone attack on a member of the UN, EU, and Nato," foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski told local radio.
"I have appeared before the UN [Security] Council in the past, and it seems to me that our arguments have been convincing."
Moscow denied responsibility for the incident, with a senior diplomat in Poland saying the drones had come from the direction of Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022.
Russia's defence ministry said its drones had carried out a major attack on military facilities in western Ukraine, but it had not planned to hit any targets in Poland.
The foreign ministers of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania said the Russian drone intrusion "was a deliberate and coordinated strike constituting an unprecedented provocation and escalation of tension".
Polish PM vows military modernisation
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged on Thursday to push ahead with a “great modernisation programme” for his country's military.
The Polish Air Navigation Agency announced Thursday morning that Poland was introducing air traffic restrictions in the eastern part of the country. It said the step was taken at the request of the Polish army for national security reasons, but did not elaborate.
Poland said some of the drones that entered its airspace on Wednesday came from Belarus, where Russian and local troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday. Poland is closing its border with Belarus at midnight Thursday, a planned move also associated with the military exercises.
Tusk addressed Polish troops at an air base in the central city of Lask, praising their quick action and that of Nato allied forces from the Netherlands that responded to the multiple Russian drone incursions.
Poland expects to receive its first F-35 fighter jets from the United States next year, he said. It will be the first delivery of some of the 32 aircraft expected by 2030 as part of a support package finalised five years ago, Tusk said.
The jets are aimed at significantly strengthening Polish security and its Nato defence capabilities against regional threats.
“We will do everything to ensure that our allied obligations, which are so important from our point of view today, are fulfilled by our allies,” Tusk said
“We hope that the Americans will meet the deadlines. We would like the first batch of the F-35s to reach you in May, so that we can speak of our air power with increasing confidence from month to month and from year to year. And that Poland is truly safe from the sky.”
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday offered an ambiguous initial response to Russia's drone incursion. “What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!” Trump posted on social media.
Trump told Polish President Karol Nawrocki in the White House last week that the US will maintain a robust military presence.
Several European leaders said they believed the incursion amounted to an intentional expansion of Russia's assault against Ukraine.
“Russia's war is escalating, not ending,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. “What (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game-changer,” she said, adding that it should result in stronger sanctions.
Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in Nato territory.