INSERTS

00:03 Report / Teri Schultz 
00:50 Edgards Rinkevics / Latvian President 
01:04 Radek Sikorski / Polish Foreign Minister
01:32 Ian Bond, Centre for European Reform
02:11 Rob Bauer / Former NATO military committee chief 

Script:

NATO has launched a new mission — “Eastern Sentry” —  to better protect its eastern flank against potential air attacks from Russia, including a flurry of assistance and reassurance to Poland and the Baltics after the recent incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace. Will this stop Russia from staging more aerial invasions and if not, what’s NATO’s game plan?))

00:01
TRACK: 
Air-raid sirens…closed airspace…fear among residents that death could come from above…not all-too-familiar scenes from Ukraine but from NATO territory after almost 20 Russian drones invaded Polish airspace.

00:16
+++SOT: Ukrainian refugee 
“I’m from Ukraine. I came to Poland, I thought it would be better.”

00:22
+++SOT: Polish resident
“we were sort of not mentally prepared for those sirens.”

00:29
NATO says, militarily, it WAS prepared, and that the fact it shot down three drones shows populations are not in danger.     

But shooting down drones with fighter jets is  not cost-effective in the long run. The Baltic States and Poland have long been asking for what they call a “drone wall” but it doesn’t yet exist.

00:48
+++SOT: Edgars Rinkevics, Latvian President
“at this point anti-drone defense systems in NATO countries still need to be developed.”

00:56
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski says Ukraine could teach Europe the lessons  it’s learned the hard way .

01:02
+++SOT: Radek Sikorski, Polish Foreign Minister
“it has plenty of experience of dealing with drones both electronically and kinetically that we need to integrate into our procurement and our doctrine.”

01:16
NATO says its new Eastern Sentry mission, launched in response to the incursion, will be collecting and using all this knowledge and experience.

But it’s not just Ukrainians who are ahead, warns Ian Bond from the center for European Reform. 

01:30
+++SOT: Ian Bond, Centre for European Reform
“The Russians now are setting up at least one large factory for manufacturing drones. And I think Ukraine and Europe between them have got to figure out a way to build both offensive drones and counter drone measures at least as fast, if not faster.”

01:54
The former head of NATO’s military committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, says both the alliance and its citizens need to better prepare for more drones and even worse

02:05
+++SOT: Teri Schultz, DW
“Does this mean, Admiral Bauer, that NATO is at war?

02:08
+++SOT: Rob Bauer, fmr NATO military committee chief
“For sure we’re not at peace. We are in sort of the gray zone between peace and war, and that requires a different set of rules and it requires a difference mentality and it require us to be paying attention and it requires us to focus more.”

02:27
Despite more NATO resources already pouring into Poland under “Eastern Sentry”, 
Moscow doesn’t seem deterred, maybe just diverted… As a Russian drone entered Romanian airspace over the weekend.