Polish foreign minister says NATO summit will signal unity to Putin

Poland’s foreign minister said Friday that next week’s NATO summit hosted by Türkiye will demonstrate Western unity to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while warning Moscow against any attempt to stage a provocation against Poland or another member of the alliance.

“The purpose of the upcoming NATO summit will be to show Putin the unity of the West,” Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters, adding that the alliance would send a clear signal that it remains united in the face of what he called Russian aggression.

Citing recent media reports claiming that Russia could seek to engineer a provocation against a NATO member, Sikorski said simply: “We know what you’re planning. Don’t do it.”

His remarks follow warnings by senior Polish officials that Russia could carry out a false flag operation designed to create a pretext for escalation against a NATO country. In April, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Russia could attack a NATO member “in months rather than years,” while Sikorski told CBS News he could not rule out a Russian false flag operation.

According to reports by Polish news outlet Onet, citing multiple sources, Poland itself could be among the potential targets of such a provocation, alongside the Baltic States, which also border Russian territory. The claims were subsequently reported by Britain’s The Telegraph.

The NATO summit comes amid heightened tensions between Russia and the alliance with the Ukraine war, now in its fifth year, and growing concerns among NATO’s eastern members about hybrid attacks, sabotage, and disinformation campaigns attributed to Moscow.