Ekaterina Girnyk10:51, 08.10.24

Poland and its neighbors are preparing to fight Russia alone, analyst notes.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Poland had a “constitutional obligation” to shoot down missiles heading for its territory, but NATO forbade it. As The Times’ Edward Lucas writes, while Russia has left NATO’s border countries in fear, America has been frustrated by its hesitant stance.

“Some representatives of the border states believe that the US responded to a serious Russian cyberattack a few years ago by briefly cutting off power in Moscow. They would like to see a similarly strong response to the much more frequent attacks on them,” the analyst notes.

As Lithuania’s top diplomat Gabrielius Landsbergis put it, the US “has the means to draw real red lines when it wants to, so why can’t we do that for NATO?”

The analyst notes that although Poland, as well as the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, hope that Ukraine will be able to win and provide it with enormous assistance, they fear that Russia can win due to its numbers:

“No matter how the war ends, in a couple of years Russia will be ready for a new war. NATO is not ready for this, it does not have sufficient supplies, plans and weapons… Therefore, Poland and its regional allies are hastily preparing for the worst and to fight alone if necessary.”

Protecting the Ukrainian sky

As UNIAN reported, Ukraine and Poland are seeking to develop a mechanism for jointly shooting down Russian missiles and drones over Ukrainian territory. Poland notes that it will discuss this with NATO member countries.

At the same time, White House National Security Representative John Kirby  noted that escalation of the conflict would not be beneficial for either Ukraine or Poland.

Sikorski later said he believed Poland had the right  to shoot 

(C)UNIAN 2024