Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny made a resonant statement about the position of Eastern European countries in an interview published on March 26, 2025. According to him, Romania, Poland and the Baltic countries understand that they cannot count on immediate protection from NATO under Article 5 of the Alliance Charter in the event of drone incidents, which forces them to avoid public reactions to such events.

Zaluzhny spoke about a telephone conversation with representatives of Romania, who asked not to mention cases of drone crashes on their territory.

"They called me from Romania and said: don't talk about the Shaheds that fell here. And then they added: why did you turn on the electronic warfare systems, now the drones are flying towards us?" — he quoted.

In response, he suggested that his Romanian colleagues use their own forces to neutralize the threat, recalling that the country has 40 F-16 fighters at its disposal. This episode, according to Zaluzhny, demonstrates the confusion of NATO's Eastern European members.

The former commander-in-chief stressed that the countries of the region are aware of the limits of their security guarantees.

"Article 5? It doesn't exist in reality. The Baltics, Poland, Romania understand this - and remain silent," “he said, hinting at the alliance’s unpreparedness to respond promptly to such incidents.