Jacek Siewiera, former head of Poland's National Security Bureau, proposed on September 15, 2026, that Europe donate 1,000 long-range drones to Ukraine for every confirmed Russian provocation against NATO or European states, telling TVP World: "If we detect one interception of your hostile activity on Baltic, we donate 1,000 drones for the long range to Ukraine." The idea is to make each incident cost Russia far more than whatever it gained from it, rather than draw a proportionate response.
The proposal follows the Yahodyn strike and the Pratkūnai shootdown
Siewiera's comments came after a Russian drone strike hit the locomotive of a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing on September 13, about two kilometers from Polish territory - none of the 206 passengers were hurt, and a diplomatic train carrying former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had passed through the area shortly before. AirVeto's own coverage of that strike is at Russia's drone strike near the diplomatic train at Yahodyn. Siewiera told TVP World the strike's timing and precision suggested it was meant to intimidate Western officials and Ukraine's supporters. TV3.lt's coverage of Siewiera's remarks for a Lithuanian audience describes the same proposal, citing factory arson and Baltic airspace breaches as examples of the hostile acts that would trigger it.
Per TVP World, hours after Siewiera's remarks, NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that had entered Lithuanian airspace from the direction of Belarus - the same event AirVeto reconstructed as the Pratkūnai drone shootdown, Lithuania. Lithuanian authorities said the drone's origin was still under investigation at the time.
Siewiera also flagged a detection gap on Europe's eastern flank
Siewiera said Europe's eastern flank still lacks the integrated detection capabilities Ukraine has built during the war, and argued that radar, acoustic sensors, and other systems should be linked together to give commanders earlier warning of drones and missiles and cut the time between detection and response. He said the problem is growing more urgent as Russia fields faster, jet-powered drones that are harder for conventional interceptors to engage.
No mechanism yet for how the 1,000-drone link would work
Siewiera's proposal is a policy idea from a former official, not an adopted NATO or EU mechanism - TVP World's report does not describe any government or alliance body that has agreed to implement it, only Siewiera's own framing: "Europe has to build that direct link between provocation, sabotage, diversion and the result on their soil in Moscow, because we see that it works." The proposal echoes an earlier warning from Siewiera, cited by TVP World, that there are "no safe places left in Europe" as drone attacks and sabotage blur the line between the battlefield and the European home front.