Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov issued a stern warning on Thursday, warning that any NATO nuclear installations placed permanently on Polish territory will necessarily become targets for the Russian military.
“The expansion of the practice of joint NATO nuclear missions – regardless of who becomes that country or those countries that can join those already participating in this practice – is of a purely destabilising nature. And in fact, threatening,” Ryabkov said, Xinhua news agency reported.
“I’m not even talking about permanent deployment, which is also being hotly discussed by hotheads in Warsaw. Therefore, all those politicians who are now enthusiastically discussing such a scheme in Poland and beyond, for their own reasons, must understand: shifts in this direction will not add to Poland’s security, but the corresponding facilities will certainly become a target. They will be at the forefront of our military planning,” he stressed.
Ryabkov referred to the ongoing discussions regarding the deployment of NATO nuclear facilities in Poland as an "evolving story".
Moscow closely monitors how Warsaw addresses this topic, he added.
Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda, in an interview with the Fakt newspaper, confessed that Polish authorities have held talks with the US regarding the prospect of placing nuclear weapons within Poland under NATO's nuclear sharing. Duda said Poland was prepared to host such weapons if it was deemed necessary for security reasons.
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