NATO responds to Russia’s drone incursion with ‘Eastern Sentry’ defense plan

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Today, NATO launched a new plan to improve its defenses along its eastern flank with Russia after Russia's unprecedented incursion of drones into NATO member Poland earlier this week. Also today, the Trump administration presented to Europe a new package of economic punishments against Russia designed to be imposed by both the U.S. and Europe.

  Nick Schifrin has been following this all today and joins me now.

  So, Nick, let's start with NATO's new plan. What did the alliance announce today?

• Nick Schifrin:

  It's called Eastern Sentry, and it's designed to extend from the far north up to the top of Finland all the way down to Bulgaria on the Black Sea. The idea is to have more integrated air defense, better information sharing, and new assets.

  France is sending transport planes, including one that landed in Poland tonight, as well as fighter jets. Denmark and Germany will also send jets, and this will all be under the control of NATO and its top commander, American General Alexus Grynkewich, who spoke today in Brussels.

• Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe:

  The key to this is an entirely new defense design. This is going to be a comprehensive and integrated approach, and with additional resources, we will be able to plug gaps in the line. We will be able to concentrate forces where we need to, to defend at a moment of a particular threat. And we will have much better communication across the entire eastern flank.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Now, a lot of this has existed before, Amna, but Grynkewich acknowledged that NATO still needs to learn lessons that they should learn from Ukraine, from the war in Ukraine, how Ukraine and Russia are fighting, especially trying to create a new way to shoot down relatively cheap drones with a new version of a drone wall or something like that, rather than using billion-dollar jets in order to shoot drones.

  But the fact is, Polish authorities say 19 Russian drones cross from Belarus and Russia into Poland over seven hours. And that is the sign that the alliance as a whole politically has failed to convince Russia that it would pay any price for this kind of incursion, argues Heather Conley of the American Enterprise Institute.

• Heather Conley, American Enterprise Institute:

  I think it was a success that multiple NATO countries met the test. But the fact that Russia even tried this means our deterrence in some ways failed. And we needed — NATO needed to have this early sentry — Eastern Sentry 2.5 years ago, when the first debris fell on Polish territory.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Conley and others, Amna, see this as a major purposeful Russian incursion to test NATO planning and resolve.

• Amna Nawaz:

  But, Nick, even within the alliance, there does seem to be some disagreement about Russia's intentions here. What should we know about that?

• Nick Schifrin:

  Yes, absolutely.

  Polish authorities have insisted that this was purposeful, citing those facts about the incursion that I said before. But President Trump said yesterday the drones could have been fired at Ukraine and then somehow diverted because of jamming.

  Donald Trump, President of the United States: Could have been a mistake. Could have been a mistake. I hear that what happened, as you know, where they were taken down and they went a little berserk. But, regardless, yes, I would condemn even for being near that line. I don't like it. I'm not happy about it.

• Nick Schifrin:

  A senior U.S. and senior NATO official tonight tells me, Amna, that there is no definitive proof that Russia intentionally flew the drones into Poland. But there is also simultaneously no proof that they thought it was a mistake.

  And so, bottom line, the Poles are convinced, though. Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland doubled down today on X, writing — quote — "We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake, but it was not, and we know it."

• Amna Nawaz:

  We also noted, Nick, this new package of economic punishments to be imposed by both the U.S. and Europe against Russia. What is that?

• Nick Schifrin:

  So this is a meeting that happened today between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his counterparts from the G7, the seven leading industrialized economies in the world.

  And G7 officials tell me that there's a U.S. proposal to try and punish Russia with the rest of the world. That is, the G7 must immediately impose a 50 to 100 percent tariff, secondary tariff, on China and India for their purchases of Russian crude oil, use hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian frozen assets to finance Ukraine, sanction Russian energy giant Rosneft, Russian banks, and a so-called shadow fleet of ships that Russia uses to move oil and gas, and to more quickly end the import of Russian energy imports into Europe.

  Earlier today, President Trump appeared in FOX News' studio and was asked his vision for how to punish Putin.

• Brian Kilmeade, FOX News Anchor:

  Has your patience run out with Putin?

• Donald Trump:

  Yes, it's sort of running out, and running out fast, but it does take two to tango. Putin is a question mark, but we're going to have to come down very, very strong.

• Brian Kilmeade:

  What is clamping down on Vladimir Putin…

  (Crosstalk)

• Donald Trump:

  Well, it'll be hitting very hard on — with sanctions to banks and having to do with oil and tariffs also.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Here's the problem, Amna. President Trump has threatened these tariffs before and not followed through. And, crucially, there is no sign the U.S. is willing to impose the penalty on China, specifically that is asking the rest of the world to actually take.

  And so a senior European official tells me that that is their read as well, that the U.S. isn't willing to take that step on China. And so this official sees this more as negotiating tactics than the final U.S. demand on Europe.

• Amna Nawaz:

  All right, Nick Schifrin, thank you very much.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Thank you.

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