Nawrocki: Russia wages “civilization war” against NATO
Moscow sees NATO, including Poland, as its main enemy and will try to drive a wedge between the allies of the North Atlantic Alliance. Even if the Russian-Ukrainian war is frozen, Russia will remain revisionist and ready for further aggressive actions.
This was stated by Polish President Karol Nawrocki during his speech to the Polish military command in Warsaw on Wednesday, according to a Ukrinform correspondent.
As Nawrocki noted, Russia sees the North Atlantic Alliance, and Poland in particular, as “its main enemy in the civilizational war it is waging with the West.”
According to him, in order to weaken the Alliance, the Kremlin is taking measures aimed at undermining confidence in the mechanism for applying Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. He expressed his conviction that Russia will continue to intimidate the states on the entire eastern flank of the Alliance, accompanied by “a high level of hybrid actions and influence operations throughout Europe.”
Nawrocki also noted that Russia is cooperating more and more closely with China, forming a broader bloc of states that question the Western model of international order. In this context, “Europe is becoming one of the key theaters of this rivalry.”
He also stressed that he sees a real prospect of Russia's negative influence on the security environment continuing, which could lead to developments unfavorable for Poland.
“In such a scenario, even if the conflict in Ukraine changes in intensity, we will have to deal with its consequences across the entire eastern flank. We must take into account the need to respond to a series of events and incidents below the threshold of war that will test our resilience,” the Polish president said.
He added that the goal of these actions would also be to try to split NATO's unity, and warned that “an imaginary de-escalation, freezing the conflict, and partially recognizing the current front line as Russia's control over eastern Ukraine could lead to a long-lasting division in Europe.”
“In that case, Russia will remain even more revisionist — outwardly seemingly weakened, but in reality, unfortunately, still ready for war,” the Polish president stressed.
As reported by Ukrinform, Nawrocki previously stated that Russia has remained a threat to countries in the region for hundreds of years, regardless of whether Russia is tsarist, communist, or Putinist.
Photo: prezydent.pl