Europe’s plan to fight Putin’s drones
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the night of September 9, sirens sounded across eastern Poland. Around 20 Russian drones had crossed the border, and NATO aircraft were scrambled to shoot them down. The incident became a wake-up call for Europe and the US, where further sightings of drones over airports and military facilities have since been reported. This week, defence secretary John Healey announced a plan to allow British troops to bring down drones over military bases. But the UK isn’t the only country taking this growing threat more seriously. So what’s Europe’s plan to fight Putin’s drones?
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Guest: Oliver Moody, Berlin correspondent, The Times and The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producer: Micaela Arneson.
Read more: Drones and balloons cause wave of panic in Nato countries
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Soldiers will be given power to shoot down threatening drones
Further listening: Putin’s drones, Nato’s fightback, and when is it war? https://pod.fo/e/3352cd
Clips: NPR, 7 News, Sky News, Channel 4 News, BBC News.
Photo: Getty Images.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:09.0 | In the dead of night, on September 9th, air raid sirens shattered the peace across eastern Poland. |
| 0:32.6 | For the next seven hours, Russian drones violated Polish airspace, and in a historic move, the government decided to fight back. NATO and Polish warplanes shot down several Russian attack drones that flew into Polish airspace overnight. |
| 0:39.2 | Poland's Prime Minister says his country's on the brink of war for the first time since the Nazis |
| 0:44.3 | invaded in the 1930s. Allies are resolved to defend every inch of allied territory. |
| 0:51.8 | Although no one was killed or injured, the incident acted as a wake-up call for the rest of NATO. |
| 1:00.0 | We in Europe had got used to seeing news reports about these massed waves of drone attacks on Ukrainian cities |
| 1:09.1 | and thinking it was all something that happens very |
| 1:11.3 | far away. And this was the night when it really came home that this could be us tomorrow or |
| 1:18.2 | next week or next year. |
| 1:22.5 | Nearly every week since then, there have been reports of more incursions into NATO airspace |
| 1:28.1 | or mysterious drones above airports, military facilities and critical infrastructure in Europe and the US. |
| 1:37.6 | Governments are starting to realise that something has to be done to combat this growing threat. |
| 1:46.2 | The Defence Secretary, John Healy, took to the stage on Monday night to reassure the public that he was on it. |
| 1:52.8 | We're developing new legal powers to bring down unidentified drones over UK military bases. |
| 2:25.1 | The story today, how Europe plans to fight Russian drones. The exact details are disputed a bit, including the number of drones. |
| 2:30.0 | Some accounts say 19, some say as many as 23. |
| 2:33.9 | Oliver Moody is Berlin correspondent for the Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 2:38.6 | He's been following the rise of drone activity since that night in Poland. |
| 2:43.9 | And of course the Russians are trying to disown the whole episode. |
| 2:49.0 | But basically what happens is that about 20 drones start coming in from |
| 2:54.9 | Ukrainian and Belarusian airspace. These are, as far as we can tell, Shahhead type drones. So those |
... |
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