Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on Poland shooting down Russian drones

Poland says it's shot down Russian drones, which entered its airspace during attacks on Ukraine. 

It marks the first time a NATO country has directly engaged Russian assets since the start of the war in 2022. 

The NATO and Polish air forces responded - and four Polish airports were shut down. 

UK correspondent Gavin Grey explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Listen. First of all, if you're a Star Trek fan,
I've got something for you. But also I have failed,
and this is an absolute crime on my part. I
have failed to mention to you the fact that one
of our little towns has made the World's Most Beautiful
Villages list according to Forbes and the Unforgettable Travel Company.
And in the fact that Forbes is involved is like, it's
reputable and it's not a little ragged, you know what
I mean. So anyway, it's Russell, you know, as in

(00:22):
Corto Arica, as in hellhole of the Pacific, as in
right up there in the beautiful like where the Duke
of Marlborough is. And if you've been there you know
that they're absolutely right. It is one of the most
beautiful little places. It comes in at number eleven on
the list. A little place in the Cotswaltz has come
in at number one by Berry B. Berry. I don't know,
you know who. We can ask Gavin Gray, UK correspondent,

(00:43):
who's worth us? Hello, Gavin?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I have There is Bibery and it is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
What do you do when you go to Bibery?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Look at the beautiful buildings. It's quite small There isn't
a huge amount to do that. It's more just a
beautiful place to walk through the Yeah, the buildings are
kind of created out of honeycolored stones, so when the
sun shines, oh bye, it's somewhere really stunning. But I've
never been to Russell, so that's on my list.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, absolutely you should go. And what you want to
do is you want to go in the winter and
just sit there at the Duke of Marlborough by the fireplace,
sipping a whiskey and just imagining that you're a whaler
from the nineteenth century, but a clean one. So that's
quite a nice little day dream. Hey, listen, what do
you make of the fact that the Russian drones have
been down in Poland?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, obviously a major escalation of what's been going on.
So this is the first time a member of the
NATO Military Alliance has directly engaged Russian assets that it's
been called in airspace. We believe those to be drones,
and this is the first time since the Ukraine War
started back in twenty twenty two. Currently, Poland's president is
sharing a national security briefing with key officials. The operation

(01:51):
no longer ongoing. Everything's been stood down by Now just
in the last a few minutes, four airports were shot
in Poland. Those have now been reopened. But this is
really serious because in the past, yes, drones have strayed
beyond Ukraine's borders, but it's always just been like one
or two and not much has happened. But this time
these have gone deep into Polish airspace and so consequently,

(02:14):
I think many people think, along with Russia striking a
government building in Kiev in Ukraine, is this simply testing
the West as to their resolve and how far they
are likely to go. No response from Donald Trump at
the moment, but of course it is in nighttime there.
But all of the Poland's fellow NATO members and neighbors

(02:35):
are saying this is unacceptable. It's a Russian war of aggressions,
says the Swedish Prime Minister, and Poland has every right
to defend its airspace. So we now also learned that
as well as Polish air Force, it was also conducted
and operation conducted with the Dutch as well, and they've
just been thanking the Dutch for deploying F thirty five

(02:56):
fighter jets.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Now, what is going on in France.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Today? Well, it's just a huge week really for the
French people, for the French economy. French economy currently has
a deficit of roughly seven trillion New Zealand dollars, that's
one hundred and fourteen percent of the country's economic output
or GDP. And we've got the fifth prime minister now

(03:22):
appointed in the last two years, and Sebastian leco Newt
as he's called, has got a big job on his hands.
Today there is a block everything, as it's called protest,
and already we're hearing the Paris and so forth, many
people staying at home, they are not going on public
transport because so much of that has been threatened by

(03:44):
this strike, along with other services as well. It's called
the look on two let's block everything. And then on Friday,
the credit rating agency Fitch will reassess France's debts and
that could make its borrowing costs even higher if it
low as it's rating from double A minus. So it
really is a big week in France. And this new

(04:05):
prime minister, boy, what a job he's got on trying
to unite the left, the right and the center. And
that's probably why he's the fifth person to be trying
it in two years.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, good Stef Gvin, thank you very much, really appreciate it.
Gavin Gray, UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
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