Warsaw: Tusk warns Russia planning drone or rocket strikes on NATO

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Thursday that Russia is planning hybrid strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine, among them Poland. The attacks would be designed to weaken NATO’s willingness to defend a member state under attack, Tusk told the Polish parliament.

Russia will pretend the strikes are “accidental” in order to “paralyze or at least weaken the motivation of NATO countries” to rush to the defense of the targeted country, Tusk said.

“There is a real risk that drones or other types of projectiles will enter the territory of one or several countries on the eastern flank and even cause destruction,” Tusk said.

“The official narration will be that it’s an accident and there is no reason for NATO to think about a response,” he added.

Tusk said Russia had grown more dangerous because it was increasingly using jet-powered drones, which fly higher and faster and are more difficult for air defenses to detect before reaching their targets.

Tusk has warned for months that Russia might be preparing a more serious hybrid attack against a NATO country. His warnings have grown more specific as he received intelligence from NATO, Ukrainian and U.S. intelligence services, including the CIA, he said.

In recent days, Tusk has said Russia was now focusing on attacking border crossings between Ukraine and its European neighbors to disrupt delivery lines to Ukraine. Four such incidents occurred on Poland’s border with Ukraine in the past week, and several others took place in recent weeks on Ukraine’s border with Moldova.

Tusk said Russia was not ready for peace talks “without the total capitulation of Ukraine.”

“They are convinced the winter will be tragically critical for Ukraine,” Tusk said. He noted that last winter Poland stepped in with deliveries when Ukraine’s energy infrastructure came under attack, but if border crossings are destroyed, it will be far harder for Warsaw to offer similar help this coming winter.

“Russia’s goal is to destroy as much as possible the economy and logistics of Ukraine,” Tusk said, adding that intelligence indicates continuous attacks of “very high frequency and intensity” on six main Ukrainian cities should be expected in the near future.

Tusk announced he would travel to Ukraine overnight to Friday, an act he framed as defiance after European leaders narrowly escaped a drone strike on a train near the Polish-Ukrainian border on Sunday. Officials usually keep travel plans to Ukraine secret for security reasons.

In Kyiv, Tusk said he would discuss with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy how to defend against the new types of drones, and talk with partners including Slovakia about further sanctions against Russia.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that “major progress is being made toward establishing a U.S. Army base in Poland” after a U.S. delegation visited several possible locations in Poland last week.

“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.”

Poland has for years sought to host a permanent U.S. base as a strong guarantee of its security against the Russian threat. Poland’s high defense spending and major U.S. arms purchases have persuaded the Trump administration to consider a permanent base even as it reorganizes and reduces its overall military presence in Europe.

In May, the U.S. unexpectedly withdrew troops from the total of around 10,000 stationed in Poland, causing confusion among European allies and concern in Warsaw. Officials in both Poland and the U.S. soon said the withdrawal was temporary and Poland was not expected to be affected by the U.S. troop reorganization.