Mariusz Cielma, editor-in-chief of the monthly Nowa Technika Wojskowa, told Polish state news agency PAP that three dominant narratives were untrue: that the drones’ range proved they could not have come from Russia, that wreckage found in Poland had been “planted,” and that Ukrainian GPS jamming pushed Russian drones off course into Poland.
Cielma said the drones—known in Poland as “Gerbera,” a decoy-type design derived from Iran’s Shahed family and produced by Russia as the Geran-1 and Geran-2—can fly far beyond their nominal range when stripped of warheads and fitted with extra fuel.
Photographs and prosecutor statements indicated the units that fell in Poland carried neither explosive payloads nor reconnaissance kits, reducing weight and extending endurance.
Analysts in Ukraine and elsewhere have also documented variants with improvised fuel tanks, a configuration consistent with long-range infiltration.
One drone was recovered in a field near Mniszków in Poland's central Łódzkie province. Local and national outlets reported the find within hours, noting no warhead and limited ground scarring, which experts said is typical of slow-landing decoy drones rather than proof of “planted” wreckage.
Cielma added that even if some drones used satellite navigation, Ukrainian jamming would not by itself divert them hundreds of kilometres; at most it would reduce aim point precision.
Many Shahed/Geran-type systems combine satellite guidance with inertial navigation, which is immune to radio jamming, and several reconnaissance variants have been found using cellular links rather than satellite fixes.
Roman Baecker, a professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, north-central Poland, said the accompanying social media campaign delivered only a “partial” success for Russia.
An analysis by the Europe-based Res Futura collective, cited in the Polish media, found the topic reached an exceptional scale online – about 173 million posts – with a plurality of users blaming Russia and many others describing the raid as a test of Poland’s and NATO’s defences.
Poland’s Government Security Centre (RCB) issued public alerts on Wednesday morning advising residents in affected regions to report drone debris and keep clear of any finds.
The first round went out around 7 a.m. to three eastern provinces, followed by a broader alert after 8 p.m. as operations continued.
Addressing criticism that fighter jets and expensive munitions were used against relatively cheap drones, the chief of the General Staff of Poland's Armed Forces, Gen. Wiesław Kukuła, said last week that the calculation was straightforward: the value of human life and protected infrastructure outweighs the cost of an interceptor.
“We will use a missile a hundred times more expensive if it saves even one life,” he told private broadcaster TVN24.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk told lawmakers on September 10 that Poland recorded 19 airspace violations during the night, prompting consultations with allies under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
NATO has since announced measures to reinforce the alliance’s eastern flank, and Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned Moscow that allies are vigilant and “will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
Russia has fielded domestic versions of Iran’s Shahed-131/136 loitering munitions under the names Geran-1 and Geran-2 since 2022, using swarms to saturate air defences.
Decoy “Gerbera”-type airframes, sometimes with small warheads or none at all, complicate interception and can mask strike packages aimed at critical infrastructure.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP