Poland's Sikorski threatens consequences for Putin if Russia targets NATO
Photo: Radosław Sikorski (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in an interview with CBS News that he does not rule out Russian provocations against one of NATO’s member states. According to him, if Russian dictator Vladimir Putin goes to war, "we will do what we have always done."
During the conversation, the host asked how the minister would assess the likelihood that Russia might, within the next two years, attempt to test NATO's Article 5 commitments against one of the Alliance's countries.
In response, Sikorski said that as long as Ukraine continues to resist successfully, Russia does not have the capacity to attack NATO successfully.
However, the minister referred to Putin's recent remarks that Russia would respond if it itself were attacked by other countries. For this reason, the Polish official suggested that Russia could be preparing provocations.
"We, of course, have no such plans. So, I wouldn't exclude Russians doing some kind of force flag operation against Russian territory in order to have a pretext for hitting one of the NATO countries. We need to communicate to Putin that we know what he's up to, and that we will not be taken in and that this would be completely unacceptable and we would defend inch of NATO territory.," Sikorski stressed.
When asked where such a provocation could occur, he said people often consider the Suwałki Gap a weak point.
"We are spending 4.8% of our GDP on defense, more proportionally than the United States. We are building up. We have F-16s, we have F-35s, we have Abrams tanks, we have HIMARS, and we have an army that will fight."
At the same time, he noted that other countries feel more vulnerable, in particular Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which are regularly threatened by Putin.
The interviewer also noted that Poland has invested significant resources in building fortifications under the Eastern Shield project. Asked whether tangible progress is expected this year, Sikorski replied:
"Of course, we need to take precautions. As I say, they don't have the kind of mass of forces that could threaten us. We would notice it in advance. You know, we knew that he was massing forces around Ukraine's borders for 6 months in advance, right? It's just that people thought that he can't be so criminal and so crazy to actually do it. Now, we know that Putin's intentions are as bad as some people warned. So if he starts raising his military presence around our borders, so will we," the foreign minister concluded.
Russian provocations
As a reminder, The Guardian recently reported that Russia may be preparing military and hybrid provocations on NATO's eastern flank, aiming to test Western unity amid increasing pressure over Ukraine’s long-range strikes.
A few days earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski also said that Moscow is preparing a staged false flag provocation to justify further escalation.
