Russia invaded NATO this week, says Christian Caryl in Foreign Policy. “Any other description is an obfuscation.” On Tuesday night, at least 19 drones flew deep into Polish airspace, where they either crashed or were shot down by NATO jets. The Russians claim the incursion was an accident and that some of the unmanned vehicles weren’t theirs. “Don’t buy any of it.” This was Vladimir Putin testing the defence alliance’s resolve. Will other members – the US in particular – make it clear that this sort of aggression will not be tolerated? They’re not short of options. They could immediately provide Ukraine with long-range missiles, or seize the roughly $300bn of Russian assets frozen in Western banks and send it to Kyiv. Accommodating dictators always ends badly. NATO needs to “respond decisively”.

Military officials have long worried that Putin would intensify Russia’s war in Ukraine by hitting its supply lines in Poland, says Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times. He clearly thought the risks of attacking targets on NATO territory weren’t worth it – until now. And this is exactly how Putin operates: “he tests and measures the reaction”. If this fundamental challenge to NATO is met with nothing more than “indignant tweets”, he will escalate further. Most of all, it is a test for Donald Trump. “Will he ever stand up to Putin and impose the tougher sanctions he keeps talking about?” The US president first warned of economic countermeasures back in January. He has since threatened sanctions that would be “crushing for Russia”, and set an August deadline for a ceasefire that came and went. After such a “parade of bluster”, is it any surprise Putin doesn’t take his warnings seriously?

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We’ve got some real bangers for you

We like to change the pace on Saturdays and Sundays to give a bit more room for longer pieces, features and ideas. The rest of today’s email, for example, includes Olivia Potts on the ancient glory of sausages and Matthew Syed on the bizarre experience of trying to be selected as a Labour candidate in the 2010 election. Plus of course there’s the rest of this week’s heroes and villains, including the other Mark Zuckerberg and a very naughty nacktschnecke.

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