Two border stories from 26 October 2021
A look back at the first reported combat use of a Bayraktar drone in eastern Ukraine and Poland's troop increase on the Belarus border.
What did 26 October 2021 show about security on the edges of Europe? Two separate reports pointed to pressure on borders and front lines, one in Ukraine and one in Poland.
In the area of the Joint Forces operation in Ukraine, the Turkish Bayraktar reconnaissance-strike unmanned system was used in combat for the first time, as reported at the time. The reports gave no further detail on the strike.
On the same day, Poland raised the number of soldiers on its border with Belarus from 6,000 to about 10,000. The aim was to stop further illegal crossings by Middle Eastern migrants who, according to the reports, were being flown in by the Belarusian government. The increase followed a weekend in which two border guards were hospitalised after a group of 70 migrants stormed a section of the border.
The two events were unconnected in the reports. Taken together, they show how security attention that day was fixed on borders and on the line of contact: a new weapon in use in eastern Ukraine, and a larger military presence on Poland's frontier with Belarus.
