Russian Disinformation Campaign Emerges in Wake of Drone Incursion into Poland

Pro-Kremlin disinformation teams responded with remarkable speed following Russian drone violations of Polish airspace in early September, according to a report released Tuesday by Google Cloud researchers.

Multiple information operations groups “rapidly promoted related narratives in the period immediately following the drone incursion,” the researchers found. These campaigns advanced “multiple, often intersecting influence objectives aligned with historic pro-Russia IO threat activity.”

The coordinated disinformation efforts included attempts to deny Russia’s responsibility for the airspace violations, instead framing the incidents as manufactured pretexts by Poland and NATO allies to advance their own geopolitical agenda. These campaigns also sought to undermine Polish citizens’ trust in their government and weaken public support for Ukraine.

“The pro-Russian disinformation efforts that regularly target Poland didn’t miss the opportunity to undermine Poland’s response to the drone incursions,” said John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group. “Physical attacks and disinformation work in tandem to erode society’s faith in institutions.”

At least 19 Russian drones violated Poland’s airspace between September 9-10, prompting NATO to activate air defenses and respond rapidly. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte characterized the incursion as “not an isolated incident” and noted that “allies expressed solidarity with Poland and denounced Russia’s reckless behavior.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence informed Reuters that the airspace violations were likely designed to test NATO’s resolve and potentially decrease Western support for Ukraine, particularly military aid.

This incident represents part of a larger pattern. Estonia reported a Russian helicopter violation on September 7, while Romania documented a drone entering its territory for more than 45 minutes on September 13. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk later reported another suspicious drone incident over government buildings on September 15, leading to the detention of two Belarusian citizens.

The provocations continued into late September with unexplained drone sightings over airports and military bases in Denmark and Norway, causing a temporary shutdown of Copenhagen Airport just days before it hosted a European Council meeting.

Western officials have urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to cease such provocations. “Whether intentional or not, Russian incursions into NATO airspace are deeply concerning, and reckless,” said Neil Holland, Britain’s ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “Denials and attempts to diminish the seriousness of this incident are unacceptable.”

The European Parliament condemned these violations in a September resolution, characterizing them as part of a pattern of “systematic military and hybrid warfare and provocations against the EU.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that Russia has initiated “a hybrid war against Europe,” telling citizens that “we are going to see more of it.”

Google researchers identified at least three specific pro-Moscow information operations teams working in the aftermath of the drone incursions. These included “Portal Kombat” (also known as the Pravda Network), which claimed Russian drones lacked the range to reach Polish airspace; “Doppelganger,” which published German-language articles claiming Russia had alerted Poland in advance about non-threatening drone flights; and “NDP” (Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny), which has been characterized as “a prolific purveyor of primarily anti-NATO disinformation.”

“These IO campaigns used a real-world event as a springboard to inject manipulative narratives into the public discourse,” said Austin Larsen, principal threat analyst for Google’s threat intelligence group, in a LinkedIn post.

Security experts note that Russia’s information warfare campaigns typically employ “4D” tactics – dismiss, distort, distract, and dismay. These operations target and amplify existing societal divisions to complicate “society’s ability to establish a fact-based understanding of potential threats in real-time,” according to the Google researchers.

The Kremlin’s official response to the airspace violations has maintained that if any incursion occurred, it was accidental, claiming “no objects on Polish territory were planned to be targeted.”

Such coordinated disinformation efforts have intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, highlighting the growing importance of information warfare in modern geopolitical conflicts.