Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz says that Poland is ready to defend itself against Russian military aggression in “all scenarios.”
Kosiniak-Kamysz, who also serves as Poland’s deputy prime minister, acknowledged during an interview published by Polish newspaper Super Express on Monday that Moscow could attack Poland, as Russian hostilities with his country and other NATO member states along Russia’s eastern border escalate amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“I think all scenarios are possible, and I take the worst ones very seriously,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said, according to a translation from Ukrainska Pravda. “That’s what a defense minister’s role is in our current circumstances. … We have to be prepared for anything.”
“So we’re reviewing the situation, drawing conclusions, and filling in gaps, including when it comes to weapons and ammunition,” he added. “Major [arms] procurement efforts are important, but soldiers’ personal equipment is also important.”
Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz says that Poland is ready to defend itself against Russian military aggression in “all scenarios.”
Kosiniak-Kamysz, who also serves as Poland’s deputy prime minister, acknowledged during an interview published by Polish newspaper Super Express on Monday that Moscow could attack Poland, as Russian hostilities with his country and other NATO member states along Russia’s eastern border escalate amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“I think all scenarios are possible, and I take the worst ones very seriously,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said, according to a translation from Ukrainska Pravda. “That’s what a defense minister’s role is in our current circumstances. … We have to be prepared for anything.”
“So we’re reviewing the situation, drawing conclusions, and filling in gaps, including when it comes to weapons and ammunition,” he added. “Major [arms] procurement efforts are important, but soldiers’ personal equipment is also important.”
Kosiniak-Kamysz is not the only top defense official from a NATO nation to recently express concerns about Russia’s war with Ukraine expanding across the borders of the strategic alliance.
General Gheorghiță Vlad, Romania’s chief of defense, warned last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s war “policy” would “escalate in the near future.”
He suggested that success in the Ukraine war would result in Putin quickly turning his sights on Moldova before possibly targeting NATO countries.
Last month, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that a Russian attack on NATO could happen within the next “five to eight years, while Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer said that NATO was “preparing for a conflict with Russia” and needed to “expect the unexpected.”
Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, a close Putin ally who hosts a popular program on Russian state TV, suggested during a recent broadcast that Moscow should attack NATO by launching a missile strike on Berlin from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Another Putin ally, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, said in a social media post on Friday that “all reasonable people in the West understand” Russia would not launch a first strike on a NATO country.
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However, Medvedev warned that “a big war, from which NATO will no longer turn away,” would begin if alliance members “play too hard and encroach on the integrity of our country,” referring to recent NATO training exercises along the border with Russia.
Putin has insisted that he is “interested in developing relations” with NATO members and has “no reason” and “no geopolitical interest” to “fight with” member states.
The Russian president cited concerns about NATO expanding as a key reason for launching Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Regardless, the alliance has continued to grow over the course of the war, with Finland joining last year and its neighbor Sweden being set along the same path.
Sweden’s entry into NATO would complete the transformation of the Baltic Sea into what some have dubbed “NATO lake,” with nearly all other nations on the Baltic coast—Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland—being members of the alliance. Kaliningrad, between Lithuania and Poland, is the lone exception.
source: newsweek.com/poland-defense-minister-addresses-russian-threat-prepared-anything
