Written by: Aurora D’Auria

Supervised by: Elise Alsteens & Kevin Whitehead

Edited by: Jackson Elder

Abstract: This paper analyses Russia’s cognitive attack in Poland following the drone incursion on the night between the 10th and 11th of September 2025. Using the concepts of cognitive warfare and cognitive security, it demonstrates how Moscow leveraged psychological manipulation, narrative synchronization and cognitive biases to shift debate from technical facts to blame, distrust, and alliance doubt, achieving strategic effects without military escalation. Drawing on open-source analyses of the information flood, the study maps tactics and their cognitive mechanisms, then assesses implications for EU security given Poland’s pivotal deterrence role and the EU’s fragmented information ecosystem. The paper recommends an EU-level cognitive resilience framework, targeted support to Member-State capabilities, and sustained media-literacy programs to improve societal resilience, preserve institutional trust, and reduce decision latency in future cognitive attacks.