PATRUSHEV: IF POLAND ATTACKS RUSSIA, IT WILL CEASE TO EXIST

MOSCOW, SEPTEMBER 15 /SRNA/ – Poland could cease to exist as a state within a few days if it attacks Russia, Russian presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev has warned.

Patrushev was responding to a statement by Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski that NATO could quickly defeat Russia. He dismissed this assessment of Russia’s military power as “amateurish,” emphasizing that Moscow is not using its full military potential in the conflict in Ukraine. “If Poland were to enter into a military conflict with Russia, our country would use the entire arsenal of available forces and resources, and the Polish state would cease to exist within two or three days,” Patrushev told Russian media. He accused Sikorski of Russophobic militarism, ignoring historical lessons, and repeatedly putting his own country at risk instead of ensuring its security. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that Sikorski’s calls for NATO to conduct more aggressive exercises near Russia’s Kaliningrad Region should be assessed by “people in white coats”, Russia Today reported. Sikorski earlier stated that Poland and its allies would have overwhelming air superiority in a hypothetical conflict with Russia. “If Russia attacked us and we discarded all restrictions, I believe we would defeat Russia relatively quickly,” Sikorski said at the Yalta European Strategy forum in Kyiv, adding that NATO could destroy Russia’s oil-refining capabilities within six weeks. Warsaw, along with the Baltic states, Germany and other European countries, has increasingly claimed that Russia could attack NATO territory and has called for increased military spending and a stronger alliance presence along Russia’s borders.