Putin plots ‘sneak’ attacks on NATO countries, warns Polish PM
Russia is planning “hybrid” air strikes against European allies of Ukraine, the prime minister of Poland has declared.
Donald Tusk told the country’s parliament there was a “real risk” that drones or other projectiles might fall in NATO territory.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is warning European nations will come under Russian air attacks. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP,File)
“The Russian plan, according to intelligence assessments … includes hybrid strikes using drones and missiles on countries supporting Ukraine, including Poland,” he told deputies.
In his speech to the Polish parliament on Thursday (Friday AEST), Tusk said the Kremlin might pretend the attacks were “accidental” in order to “paralyse” or at least slow the Western military alliance coming to the member nation’s aid.
“The official narration will be that it’s an accident and there is no reason for NATO to think about a response,” he said.
Tusk also warned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military arsenal was becoming more lethal.
He said the Kremlin was now deploying jet-powered drones, which fly higher and faster, making them harder to detect by air defence systems before reaching their targets.
The Polish PM said this week Russia was now focusing on attacking border crossings between Ukraine and its European neighbours in a move aimed at disrupting supply channels to Ukraine.
Four such incidents happened on Poland’s border with Ukraine in the past week.
A Russian drone strikes the engine of a Ukrainian train close to the Poland-Ukraine border on Sunday, September 13. Carl Bildt/X
During one of them on Sunday, a train carrying former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and other European security officials left a rail station shortly before a locomotive on the same track was hit.
In a seeming act of defiance, Tusk announced he would travel by train to Ukraine on Friday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the best way to combat the new Russian drones.
For security purposes, officials usually keep their travel plans to Ukraine secret.
Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, has become the principle conduit for moving Western military support and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Ukrainian police officers inspect fragments of a Russian drone after an air attack in Kharkiv on Thursday, September 17. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Trump backs new US military base
It comes as US President Donald Trump said “major progress” had been made on construction of a US Army base in Poland.
He made the comments on Truth Social after an American delegation was in Poland last week to visit several possible sites.
“If this happens, the location will be announced very soon,” Trump wrote.
“This will be a historic step for our Great U.S./Polish Alliance.”
Despite the Pentagon reorganising and reducing the deployment of US troops to Western Europe, the Poland’s high defence spending and its purchase of American weapons has won favour within the Trump administration.
- With The Associated Press
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