Kremlin says NATO nukes deployed in Poland would be 'primary target'

• It comes after Polish President said Warsaw would host Western missiles

Russia will make NATO nuclear weapons in Poland one of its primary targets if they are deployed there, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov declared today in the latest escalation of tensions between Moscow and Europe.

The comments came after Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday said his nation would be ready to host Western nukes, given Russia’s decision to station intercontinental ballistic missiles in neighbouring Belarus late last year.

‘Our patience is not limitless,’ Ryabkov said. ‘If Poland takes the path of further escalation – these verbal games with nuclear weapons – then it means there will be a further round of tension.

‘This game is very dangerous, and its consequences may be unpredictable.’

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov also responded to Duda’s declaration, stating that Russia’s defence ministry will ‘analyse the situation… and take all the necessary retaliatory steps to guarantee our safety’.

But amid the rising tension, Russian ally Belarus moved combat-ready troops closer to the border with Poland on Thursday ‘with a readiness of three hours’, according to President Lukashenko – who warned exchanging blows could lead to ‘apocalypse’.

Russia will make NATO nuclear weapons in Poland one of its primary targets if they are deployed there, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov declared today (Russian Yars nuclear missile launch is pictured)

Poland is ready to host nuclear arms if NATO decides to deploy the weapons in the face of Russia reinforcing its armaments in Belarus and Kaliningrad, President Andrzej Duda said in an interview published on April 22, 2024

Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko (L) and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin (R) confirmed in December that Moscow’s nukes were stationed in Belarus

Belarus made ready to meet Western forces with the decision to move an undisclosed number of troops south from Vitebsk Region in the north towards the southwest, where the country borders Poland and Ukraine.

Lukashenko claimed the decision was motivated by an intensifying threat to national security brought on by the war in Ukraine.

He claimed 120,000 Ukrainian troops were stationed along the shared border and argued that ‘Washington is doing everything to drag our country into the conflict’.

In December, he also confirmed Minsk was cooperating with Moscow to host Vladimir Putin’s nuclear weapons as tension ratchet up between East and West.

The Kremlin justified the decision as a security response to perceived aggression by NATO amid its ongoing support for Ukraine.

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In an interview published in Polish newspaper Fakt on Monday, Duda said his country – a member of the transatlantic security alliance – would be ready to host nuclear weapons if called upon to do so by Western partners.

Russia has ‘recently relocated its nuclear weapons to Belarus,’ Duda said.

‘If there were a decision by our allies to deploy nuclear weapons within the nuclear sharing also on our territory in order to strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready.’

But his comments may have been made out of hand, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk later telling journalists he had to discuss this suggestion with Duda urgently.

‘I would also like any potential initiatives to be, first of all, very well prepared by the people responsible for them and (I would like) all of us to be absolutely positive that we want it,’ Tusk said in a rather reserved response.

‘This idea is absolutely massive, I would say, and very serious (and) I would need to know all the circumstances that have led the president to make this declaration,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Poland’s foreign minister yesterday called on NATO to increase its defence preparedness and said Warsaw should be at the centre of decision-making in the European Union.

Setting out his vision for Poland at the heart of Europe, Radek Sikorski warned that a Russian attack on NATO would end in defeat for Moscow, but said NATO must increase its defences to ensure long term security.

‘It is not we – the West – who should be afraid of a clash with Putin, but the other way around,’ Sikorski said.

‘It is worth recalling this, not to increase Russians’ sense of threat, because NATO is a defence pact, but to show that an attack by Russia on any of the Alliance members would inevitably end in its defeat.

‘Russia’s military and economic potential pales in comparison to that of the West. If we do not lack the will, Russia will lose. Putin’s only hope is our lack of determination.’

A Russian Sarmat ballistic missile is seen on Red Square during Moscow’s May 9 Victory Day parade

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski warned that a Russian attack on NATO would end in defeat for Moscow, but said NATO must increase its defences to ensure long term security (Vladimir Putin is pictured)

Polish President Duda has previously spoken of Poland’s openness to nuclear sharing within NATO, before Tusk’s government came to power in December.

Three NATO members are nuclear powers: the US, the United Kingdom and France.

Within the sharing program, the US has nuclear facilities based in some allied countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, to deploy and store the weapons.

Seven members of the alliance have dual-capability aircraft that can carry conventional bombs or nuclear warheads and are available for use should such a strike be needed.

Washington retains absolute control and custody over the weapons it deploys, and would do so if it were to reach an agreement with Poland to station nuclear weapons there too.

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