Joint press conference by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alexus G. Grynkewich
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
12 Sep. 2025
(As delivered)
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte
Good afternoon. And thank you, General Grynkewich, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, for joining me here in Brussels today.
In the early hours of Wednesday, September 10th, numerous Russian drones violated Polish airspace. NATO's air defences were activated, and successfully ensured the defence of NATO territory.
While this was the largest concentration of violations of NATO airspace that we have seen, what happened on Wednesday was not an isolated incident.
Russia's recklessness in the air along our eastern flank is increasing in frequency. We have seen drones violate our airspace in Romania, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Whether intentional or not, it is dangerous.
And unacceptable.
At a meeting of the North Atlantic Council on Wednesday morning, Allies discussed the situation in light of Poland's request for Article 4 consultations. Allies expressed full solidarity with Poland and denounced Russia's reckless behaviour.
NATO's core task is to deter aggression and defend every member of this Alliance against whatever threats we face. Safeguarding our eastern flank is of utmost importance.
This is why we have forward land forces deployed in eight countries.
With contributions from every Ally supporting these contingents.
And plans in place to scale up our presence if and when required.
We have air defences - ground, sea, and air-based systems. Here, too, with contributions from Allies across Europe and North America working together every day.
To ensure that we are prepared and ready to defend every inch of Allied territory.
We stood up Baltic Sentry at the beginning of this year, to help safeguard critical infrastructure from reckless behaviour in the Baltic Sea.
And today, General Grynkewich and I are here to announce that NATO is launching "Eastern Sentry" - to bolster our posture even further along our eastern flank.
This military activity will commence in the coming days and will involve a range of assets from Allies including Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Germany, and others.
In addition to more traditional military capabilities, this effort will also feature elements designed to address the particular challenges associated with the use of drones.
"Eastern Sentry" will add flexibility and strength to our posture. And make clear that, as a defensive Alliance, we are always ready to defend.
I am confident in the strength and ability of this Alliance - not least because of the excellent leadership of our top brass.
So let me pass the floor to General Grynkewich to provide a bit more detail about how we are reinforcing our posture through "Eastern Sentry".
General, you have the floor.
Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alexus Grynkewich
Thank you, Secretary General. It's great to be here by your side in Brussels for this important announcement.
One that will strengthen our defences.
Integrated and layered air defences, both air and ground-based, will be key as we move forward. This was on top of everyone's mind in the Baltic states, where I just returned from a short while ago.
My conversations with leaders in Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia focused on NATO's response to the reckless and dangerous act that occurred in Poland earlier this week.
I am incredibly proud of our response. It was decisive and it was effective. And it speaks to the capability and professionalism of 32 Allies working together.
As the Secretary General just mentioned, this decisiveness will continue with Eastern Sentry.
Although the immediacy of our focus is on Poland, this situation transcends the borders of one nation. What affects one Ally affects us all.
This is an issue that impacts all of the Alliance, and we will treat it as such.
Eastern Sentry will be flexible and agile, delivering even more focused deterrence and defence exactly when and where needed.
It will include additional enhanced capabilities. It will integrate air and ground-based defences. And it will increase information sharing amongst nations.
Foremost, it will even further strengthen our posture to shield and protect the Alliance.
Allies stand in solidarity with Poland and are committed to this endeavour.
We have already seen announcements on the deployment of forces from France, Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom. And we expect others soon.
As part of Eastern Sentry, we will also work with Allied Command Transformation, as we did in Baltic Sentry, to rapidly experiment and field new technologies such as counter-drone sensors and weapons.
Poland and citizens from across the Alliance should be assured by our rapid response earlier this week and our significant announcement here today.
NATO will continue to defend every inch of its territory.
NATO Secretary General
Thank you, General Grynkewich. I am grateful to you and your team for the quick and decisive work you have done over the last days - and indeed every day of the year to keep our people safe.
Indeed, I am also grateful to our Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, Admiral Pierre Vandier. He is playing a key role on how we innovate and adapt our technology and tactics to address whatever new and novel challenges we may face, including from drones.
NATO is a defensive Alliance. And it is our job to ensure that we are doing all that is necessary to deter and defend.
The reckless behaviour we have seen from Russia is deeply dangerous. Our assessment of the incidents on Wednesday is ongoing. And whether or not Russia's actions were deliberate, Russia violated NATO airspace.
Therefore, we must - as NATO - make clear our resolve and our ability to defend our territory.
And that is what Eastern Sentry is designed to do.
It will bolster our posture. Add flexibility to our approach. And ensure the safety and security of our eastern flank.
Thank you so much.
NATO Spokesperson Allison Hart
Alright, we have time for several questions. We'll start in the centre, second row, Associated Press.
Lorne Cook, AP
Lorne Cook from Associated Press, a question for both of you. The risks being you're sending more resources to the eastern flank, and the risks being competition now between what Ukraine needs and what the Allies are requiring themselves. Isn't it time to start allowing Allies on the east to actually start firing at missiles and drones that are in western Ukraine when they're coming toward the border? In fact, isn't it time just to integrate entirely with Ukraine, because you're facing the same enemy anyway?
Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alexus Grynkewich
Sir, thank you for the question. What I would say is Eastern Sentry is focused on the defence of Alliance territory, and as of right now, I see no conflict between the support that individual nations are providing to Ukraine and what they are offering to contribute to this effort.
NATO Spokesperson
All right. Agence France-Presse.
Max Delany, AFP
Thank you very much. One question for the Secretary General and one for SACEUR, please. Max Delany, AFP. Secretary General, NATO crossed a Rubicon the other day by shooting down Russian aircraft over Allied territory for the first time. Is NATO now closer to war with Russia than it's ever been? And to SACEUR. You've said repeatedly that this was a successful operation by NATO to shoot down these drones, but it turns out, but it seems that you only shot down a handful of the drones, which was a far lower rate than Ukraine achieves. Was this really a success, and is it sustainable to keep on shooting down drones with multi-million dollar aircraft and expensive equipment? Thank you.
NATO Secretary General
To your first question. What this shows is that we will defend every inch of NATO territory, every inch of Allied territory, all 32 Allies, and whatever the intent was behind this, yes or no, and whether that was a mistake or not, we are still looking into that. It was reckless, it was unacceptable. These are Russian drones, and it is extremely serious what happened last Wednesday. So obviously you would, we would not be sitting here like this, if then NATO would not immediately come into action and defend every inch of Allied territory. This is exactly what we have done. And in the end, it's up to Russia how far they will take this. We will defend ourselves. We are in defensive Alliance, not an offensive Alliance. We will defend this beautiful 32 Alliance, established in 1949 and will make sure that our one billion people stay safe and stay free.
SACEUR
Sir, for the part of the question that you directed to me, I do think it was a highly successful operation, intercepting the drones that we did with the Dutch F 35 and the other assets that contributed to that. As successful as we are, we always learn something in the debrief, as we would say, in the fighter business. And so we are always looking for ways to enhance, to learn from the smallest tactical error to how we're approaching certain problems. And in my judgment, the scale of the incursion the other day was obviously larger than previous incursions that we've had. So bringing additional resources to bear on this problem will help to solve that. So that's why we're starting this operation the way we are. I'll also highlight the comment I made about working with Allied Command Transformation and Admiral Vandier, that is an effort to ensure that we get lower cost weapons that we can use to defend ourselves, to make this a sustainable operation over time and as SACEUR, one of my responsibilities is to make sure that we don't just defend today, but that we're set up to defend tomorrow. The last comment I'll make is when there's a fighter pilot that's in the air, or someone on the ground who's defending the Alliance. I don't want them thinking about how much their weapons cost. I want them defending our citizens.
NATO Spokesperson
We'll move to this side of the room, third row, Reuters.
Andrew Gray, Reuters
Thank you. Andrew Gray from Reuters, question for the Secretary General. Do you consider the response from the United States, particularly from the President, sufficient so far, when he said, "What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go." And have you spoken to President Trump about this? If so, what was the content of the message? If not, why have you not spoken to him? And for the Supreme Allied Commander. Can you tell us whether any US military assets were involved in the response to this incident? And if not, why not? And can you also give us more details of this new activity, the size, the scale of the operation? Thank you.
NATO Secretary General
To your first question, I think the American reaction was very clear by the American president, also by the Ambassador here. It's absolutely clear that we all stand together on this. America's commitment to NATO is ironclad in every sense. There's no doubt. So, I was very happy with the American reaction. And I'm not disclosing every phone call, every discussion I have, but you have seen in the press reported a phone call by the Polish president to Donald Trump, the American president. I spoke also with the Polish president. I think that was a very good phone call, clearly building also on the excellent relationship the two have been building last week during the visit of the new Polish president to the White House. So I'm absolutely satisfied on that front.
SACEUR
As far as US military assets. I'm right here, and I'm involved. And the United States commitment to the integrated military structure of the Alliance remains. For kinetic assets, the other day, there were not any. This is a function of the rotation of forces that we have to our different missions around the Alliance, though, and simply a matter of scheduling, more than anything else. As we look forward to your question on more details on the size and scope,
Eastern Sentry, as I envision it, is going to cover the entire eastern flank of the Alliance, from the High North to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, anywhere that we might see a threat from the Russians. And modeling on Baltic Sentry, which is a highly successful operation in the Baltic Sea, we have been able, through our presence and through adapting the level of forces that we have at any particular time based on how we assess the threat picture, to prevent any attacks on undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea since we started that operation. The same logic of this vigilance activity will apply, in that across the eastern flank we'll constantly adjust and change our posture in a manner that keeps the adversary off guard, but also responds to specific threats as we see them emerging.
NATO Spokesperson
Fourth row centre.
Thomas Gutschker, Frankfurter Zeitung
Thanks for the question. Thomas Gutschker, with Frankfurter Zeitung. I have two questions. The first one for the immediate future. When will this new operation be up and running? Baltic Sentry was just a matter of days. Is that the time frame you're considering? And then, in the longer-term picture, the president of the European Commission this week suggested - or proposed - a drone wall as an answer to the new threat, to be possibly financed from the common EU budget. I'm just wondering what your thoughts are about this idea. It's something that comes from the Baltic States. Is that the right way to go to better protect the eastern flank? And I leave it up to you who wants to answer.
SACEUR
Yeah, so, a couple of comments. I have issued the order tonight for Eastern Sentry to begin.The order went out as this press conference began. And so, operations are being brought together immediately, underneath my authorities as SACEUR. Now, it will take some time for us to bring everything together with the new contributions that have been coming in, and we'll continue to work on this and refine the design of the operation moving forward, but it begins immediately. I'll just make one comment on the drone wall, Secretary General.
NATO Secretary General
Please.
SACEUR
This is very in line with some of our thoughts of fortifying our eastern flank from a land and air domain perspective. And just coming back from the Baltics, a number of States are making investments in technologies, learning lessons from Ukraine about what kind of sensors and what kind of weapons, kinetic and non-kinetic, might be effective. And so, integrating those sorts of defences into our daily deterrence activities and into our regional plans is absolutely going to be something that we want to do moving forward.
NATO Secretary General
Now, and then to your question about Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, I think she had an excellent State of the Union. There was a lot of defence in there, and a lot of - also how the EU can help here and contribute to the overall effort. And this is exactly what we have been doing since October, since I came into office. And of course, we are close personal friends, and the EU and NATO are extremely closely working together on all of this, where we all agree that NATO is about the standard setting, about the capability targets, the defence plans, and the EU is about all the soft power, because you cannot fight with plans. You have to - you need to have the weapons, the defence industrial base and all that. And there we need the European Union. Also, of course, there's a question of money. Your question is also referring to that part. And of course, when it comes to money, there's national money, but everything the EU can help is great. And where the EU can bring together initiatives to, for example, when it comes to drones and developing the industry, that is all extremely helpful, and absolutely in line with how I - and I think also the President of the European Commission - see the division of labour. And here we can learn so much from, of course, Ukraine itself. They have a well-established defence industrial base. They have a lot of experience now with drone interceptors. We have JATEC, the Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centrein Poland, which is joint NATO and Ukraine, where we take lessons. And as we both said, Admiral Pierre Vandier and his team in Norfolk, of course, working day in day out, on making sure that we apply the latest insights, technologies in how we build our posture.
NATO Spokesperson
Okay, we'll come to the second row in the center. Please.
Teri Schultz, Deutsche Welle
Hi. Thank you. Teri Schultz with Deutsche Welle Today. The Alliance has long been asking for enhanced - or Allies, I should say, have long been asking for enhanced air defence, even before the war with Ukraine, but certainly since Russia's full-scale invasion. So, do you feel at all that now you're having to play catch up? That these are things that could have and should have been done earlier, and now it's simply been thrown into such sharp focus? And with the danger intensifying every day from Russia, is this not too little, but a bit late?
SACEUR
Yeah, I would refer to the performance that we had the other night during the incursion in Poland, and that we were well postured. The authorities that the North Atlantic Council had provided to SACEUR had been further delegated. And air crew were able to act decisively on a meaningful tactical timeline to eliminate much of the threat that was heading into Poland. So, I don't think we're playing catch up. I think we were postured fairly well for that event. Now, having said that, we're always learning, and that's part of the reason that we're moving forward with this enhanced vigilance activity to bring additional capabilities together. Given the scale of that incursion being something that we hadn't seen to this point. We had seen a few drones here and there, a smaller number, very well postured. If it had just been that, we would have gotten them all. But clearly with the number that came across the border, it's time to take a fresh look at this. And we're always learning. NATO is a learning organisation. Allied Command Operations is a learning command, and we're going to do everything we can as we learn those lessons to incorporate them rapidly and ensure we're defending every inch of the Alliance.
NATO Spokesperson
All right. Now we will go to Bloomberg here in the second row.
Andrea Palasciano, Bloomberg
Thank you very much. Secretary General, I have a question for you first. Presumably you have more information now about the question of intent than you had two days ago. So even though I understand like, you were still assessing, what more do you know today than you knew two days ago? And also, more of a philosophical question, perhaps, on intent. How do you exactly define intent? Do you mean the intent for these drones to have been in Polish airspace in the first place, or once they are in Polish airspace, what they were intending to do there? And SACEUR, I also have a question for you. I struggle to understand what exactly is new in this new Sentry programme, beyond assets that have already been announced and that are now being integrated. So, if you could tell us exactly what the new assets are going to be, thank you so much.
NATO Secretary General
Well, on your first question, obviously, day by day, we get more insights. I won't share them with you, but I think that at the moment when we would have a full conclusion and we could share it with others, we could do so. And even then, I'm not sure of because it all depends, of course, on what we find. The only thing I can tell you - because I think whatever I tell you has to be the truth, and the truth is that at this moment, we are still assessing. And at the same time, I think the question is relevant, 'who was behind this'? But at the same time, it's not that relevant, because whatever yes or no, it was deliberate. It was anyway reckless. It was a bunch of Russian drones, even if they were not intent to go into Poland, if that will be the outcome of this. Or even, and of course, if it was the intent, that's even more serious. But in both cases, it is reckless. It is unacceptable. It is the Russians taking a risk. We have seen this before in the Baltic countries. We have seen this before in Romania. And this is simply unacceptable, and that is why it is so important that on top of what we do already, which is the overall posture of NATO, plus the forward land forces we have on the eastern flank, that the Supreme Allied Commander has decided to launch this initiative to make sure that we defend the eastern flank even better, with more flexibility.
SACEUR
So, a really good question. So, we saw President Macron's announcement of providing the Rafale fighters. We have Danish F-16s that have been offered, a frigate has been offered, some ground-based air defence capabilities have been offered. But I would ask that we don't focus on those specific items. The key to this is an entirely new defence design. So, the previous way that we orchestrated ourselves on the eastern flank is we had individual air policing actions in different locations, and we had individual ground-based air defences in several locations as well. And then, of course, we're working with nations on a case-by-case basis, as we see threats. This is going to be a comprehensive and integrated approach, and with additional resources, we'll be able to plug gaps in the line, we'll be able to concentrate forces where we need to, to defend at a moment of a particular threat. And we'll have much better communication across the entire eastern flank, so that it's truly an integrated approach to this defence. Thank you.
NATO Spokesperson
Okay, we have time for a few more. We'll go to the fourth row in the centre.
Guldener Sonomut, NTV Turkey
It's Gul from NTV Turkey. Just a little follow up to my colleagues, from Bloomberg's question with regard to the intent. We don't know yet the intent, but there were some, no divisions, but different approaches from member states with regard to support we have to give to Ukraine or to defend ourselves. So, do you think that this Russian aggression unites against, again the member states? That we should give the necessary help to Ukraine, and that we should defend ourselves? And my question to SACEUR is that, if Russia aggression increases, do you need to come back again to North Atlantic Council to have a mandate, or is the operation given now, gives you enough room so that if the aggressions increase, you can increase your ways and means? Thank you
NATO Secretary General
On your first question, as I said, we are assessing it. And again, the answer to the question is, of course, of relevance, but anyway, it is unacceptable what happened. And anyway, it is the Russians behind it, because these drones came out of Russia. So, the question is, then, was it deliberate or not? And of course, that's relevant, but only to the limited extent, because in the end, whatever they did, it is reckless, it is unacceptable, and we cannot accept Russian drones entering European, EU, NATO airspace, Allied airspace. That is absolutely impossible. And that is why we need to defend ourselves against it. On your second question, it is and, and, and, this is exactly what also the Supreme Allied Commander said before. One, we have our plans in place, and we can, as we speak, if any attack would take place on NATO territory, we can defend ourselves. And then, of course, we have the Coalition of the Willing working on, if there will be a peace deal in Ukraine, let's pray it will be there as soon as possible. That we are able collectively to put in place the necessary security guarantees for Ukraine. We can do that. And what General Grynkewich today announced we can also do, without spreading our resources too thin.
SACEUR
Now, thank you. And I'll just add to what the Secretary General said, as Supreme Allied Commander Europe. I'm incredibly grateful for the NAC, for the authorities that have been delegated under the defence and deterrence family of plans that we have, including here during our peacetime period. And what this allows me to do on behalf of the Alliance is to rapidly respond to these events. I'm very careful to execute those authorities with discretion and judgment. Again, but very thankful to the NAC for allowing us to do this, allowing me to have the authority. Again, it enables a rapid response. I think that's important in this day and age when things move so very quickly, and we'll continue to move quickly to respond to this.
NATO Spokesperson
Okay, we'll go to the third row, the man with the tie.
Rikhard Husu, Finnish Broadcasting Company
Thanks for taking the question. Rikhard Husu, Finnish Broadcasting Company, this is for both the Secretary General and the Supreme Commander, if I may. The threat of airspace violations and drone attacks is obviously a shared concern for all allies. But would you say that countries with a longer border to Russia are more exposed in this regard, and could they expect some specific or enhanced help from NATO to tackle this situation? Thank you.
NATO Secretary General
Of course, the problem is, this is about the eastern flank, because here is a direct threat to the eastern flank from, for example, drones or whatever, could threaten our Allies on the eastern flank. But more generally speaking, you know, I don't like that whole eastern flank thinking, because it gives the impression that if I live in Madrid or in London, I am safer than when I live in Tallinn. And it is not true. Because these latest Russian missiles, when they will be launched, they come down with five times the speed of sound, and they will take five or 10 minutes longer to reach Madrid or London than they take to reach Tallinn or Vilnius. So, in that sense, let's agree that within this Alliance of 32 countries, we all live on the eastern flank. Why is this Eastern Sentry so important? Because this concentrates on this very specific issue, which is airspace violations and making sure and whatever other threat is there, that we can better and with more flexibility, defend ourselves in that part of NATO territory.
SACEUR
I guess I would just add for commentary, I have a fairly robust portfolio at the operational level of war, of dealing with drone attacks from my time in the Middle East. Including large drone attacks from Iran toward Israel back in April of 2023 - I'm sorry - 2024. The range that those drones can fly and the paths that they can take, we are all vulnerable to them. So, the eastern flank provides a first line of defence for this. And if those drones get through that first line of defence, they can be paired with the ballistic missiles or other capabilities that hold the entire Alliance at risk. So, I do think while it is an Eastern Sentry line that we're working to defend, it is on behalf of the entire Alliance that this is going forward.
NATO Spokesperson
Okay, that's all we have time for today. Thank you so much for joining us.
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