A high-ranking official from the Kremlin threatened to wipe Poland off the map within days if Warsaw involved itself militarily against Russia, in a verbal escalation that further strained relations between Moscow and NATO at a time of heightened tension in Eastern Europe.
Nikolái Patrushev, advisor to President Vladimir Putin and former Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, issued the warning in an interview with the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, as reported by the state agency TASS and noted by the Kyiv Post.
If Poland engages in military actions against Russia, our country will use all available forces and means at its disposal, and the Polish statehood will cease to exist in two or three days, declared Patrushev on September 15.
Although Russia has one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, Patrushev did not explicitly mention nuclear weapons in his statements, which did not prevent the message from being interpreted as a threat of total destruction.
The provocation was a direct response to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, who days earlier, at the Yalta European Strategy conference held in Kyiv from September 12 to 13, stated that NATO would defeat Russia "fairly quickly" if Moscow attacked the alliance.
"If Russia were to attack us and we took off our gloves, I believe we would defeat Russia quite quickly," said Sikorski, citing the air superiority of European allies, who have around 2,500 military aircraft.
Patrushev described that analysis as "amateur" and assured that Russian forces were not utilizing their full potential in Ukraine, a statement that contrasts with over four years of large-scale war in which Moscow has failed to conquer the neighboring country and has suffered enormous losses in personnel and equipment.
The threats from the Russian official come in a context of widespread escalation in Eastern Europe.
This week, Belarus —Russia's closest military ally— conducted significant maneuvers with tanks and mechanized troops near the Suwałki Corridor, a strip of about 105 kilometers between Poland and Lithuania considered NATO's most vulnerable point as it is the only land connection between the Baltic states and the rest of the alliance.
The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that his country's intelligence detected Russian plans for hybrid attacks with drones and missiles against Ukraine's allies, disguised as accidents. "We do not seek war, but if someone starts one, we will know how to defend ourselves," Tusk stated.
This episode is part of a broader campaign of Russian hybrid warfare against Europe, which includes cyberattacks, sabotage, and incursions into allied airspace.
At the end of July, a Russian Kh-101 missile struck Polish territory, in a farmland area in Lublin, in what was described as the most serious violation of NATO airspace since the invasion began.
In early September, Germany held Russia responsible for a drone attack attempt that occurred in August at the Leipzig/Halle airport. On September 15, the United States Department of Justice announced charges against five individuals accused of working for Russian intelligence services in a network that, according to authorities, was planning assassinations in the United States and attacks against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries allied with Ukraine.
In light of this situation, European leaders have ramped up their preparations. France called for high-level intelligence meetings; the United Kingdom urged its citizens to stock up on food and drinking water; Germany is preparing its hospitals for potential attacks; and NATO issued new national resilience requirements that cover everything from energy supply to healthcare in situations of "crisis and conflict."
Poland, which shares borders with Ukraine, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, and Belarus, has been one of the main military and political supporters of Kyiv since the Russian invasion in 2022.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated in February that the alliance regularly conducts exercises to prepare for scenarios of Russian aggression and that any attack "would provoke a devastating response," although analysts note that uncertainty regarding Washington's commitment to the mutual defense clause weakens deterrence against Moscow.
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