Lawmakers are feeling new urgency to slap stricter sanctions on Russia, after NATO forces scrambled fighter jets overnight to shoot down more than a dozen Russian drones that entered Poland’s airspace.
“It’s intensified interest in moving on the sanctions bill,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday morning, referring to legislation that would target both Russia and entities knowingly providing supplies to Russia.
“We need to move,” Thune summarized the conversation among his colleagues.
“That was a provocative act, which clearly is an attempt to test the U.S. and our NATO allies,” he said.
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The overnight scramble to respond to the drones marked the first time NATO fighters have fought enemy targets in NATO-allied airspace. Members of the treaty, established in 1949, are expected to coordinate over security concerns when an allied nation is threatened.
“We are dealing with a large-scale provocation,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday.
President Donald Trump hasn’t indicated how the United States will respond, but he publicly questioned why Russia would send the drones at all.
“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?” he wrote in a social media post Wednesday, cryptically adding: “Here we go!”
A Trump administration official told NOTUS that the president is gathering all information before deciding how to react. Trump had an intelligence briefing on Wednesday and planned to speak with the Polish president, the official said.
Poland borders Ukraine, which has faced a brutal, full-scale war for more than three years as Russia has sought to take over the country. The drones that entered Polish airspace overnight came as Ukraine faced yet another Russian bombardment.
If Russia’s war in Ukraine expands into Poland, it would likely prompt other NATO allies to enter the conflict, even possibly pitting nuclear-armed Russia directly against the United States.
Lawmakers on Wednesday said they want to see the U.S. supporting NATO.
“We stand ready to pass legislation authorizing bone crushing new sanctions and tariffs that can be deployed at your discretion,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who introduced the sanctions bill, wrote in an X post addressed to Trump. “Our goal is to empower you as you deal with this mounting threat.”
Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan told NOTUS on Wednesday that his state has “a lot of experience with Russian incursions into our airspace.”
“We always go intercept those guys, tell them to get out of our airspace,” he said when asked what the U.S. should do next. “So we got to be resolute and strong the way we are in Alaska.”
Stricter sanctions have backing from top Democrats, too.
“We should not be fooled. Vladimir Putin is not our friend,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a Senate floor speech. “Vladimir Putin responds only to strength, and right now, he and other autocrats around the world are bonding together. They sense America is getting weak.”
The Russian government said Wednesday that “there were no plans to target objects on Polish territory.”
Some lawmakers are convinced it was deliberate, though: “Putin recklessly sent Russian drones into the airspace of Poland, a NATO ally, testing NATO’s resolve,” Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, wrote on Wednesday. “The U.S. must stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies to defend every inch of NATO territory.”
And Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, argued that “Russian incursion into Polish airspace is further proof that Russia will always be a threat to NATO and why we must stand firm in our support for Ukraine.”
This article has been updated with additional comments.
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