Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski confirmed in comments on Friday that NATO troops are inside Ukraine but would not name the countries who have personnel on the ground.
“NATO soldiers are already present in Ukraine. And I would like to thank the ambassadors of those countries who have taken that risk,” Sikorski said at a conference commemorating Poland’s 25th year as a NATO member.
“These countries know who they are, but I can’t disclose them. Contrary to other politicians, I will not list those countries,” he added.
The fact that NATO troops are in Ukraine has been an open secret since the Discord leaks revealed last year that as of March 2023, there were 97 NATO special operations soldiers in the country, including troops from the US, the UK, Latvia, and France.
The issue has gotten renewed attention since French President Emmanuel Macron said the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine shouldn’t be ruled out. His comments prompted several NATO countries to say they weren’t considering sending troops and sparked a backlash from Russia.
In response to Sikorski’s comments, Russian Foreign Minister spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said there was no point in NATO continuing to claim it doesn’t have troops inside Russia.
A leaked recording of a conversation between German military officers that was recently published by Russian media revealed that British soldiers inside Ukraine are helping Ukrainian forces fire Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of about 150 miles.
The small NATO presence inside Ukraine risks a direct NATO-Russia war, which could quickly turn nuclear. But despite the risk of escalation, more and more NATO countries are openly discussing sending more troops.
Sikorski also said last week that the idea of NATO troops in Ukraine is “not unthinkable” and said he appreciated Macron’s comments because “it is about Putin being afraid, not us being afraid of Putin.”
Sikorski is known for suggesting the US was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that connect Russia and Germany. After explosions hit the pipelines in September 2022, Sikorski, then a member of the European Parliament, wrote on Twitter, “Thank you, USA.”
Also has advocated nuking Moscow. One nuke would pretty much take out Poland, btw, as most population lives in urban area, mostly Warsaw. Central Europe, Eurasia really, has a very old bitter contested history including with Russia. Advocating nuking Russia is just really stupid. Now is not even 40 years ago.
Can you do us a favor and attach an article quoting the Polish foreign minister advocating “nuking Moscow”?
The good thing is there’s no way Genocide Joe could remember the codes to the Nuclear launch, however, Joe’s handlers, the people calling the shots, the real crazies, do have them.
The news value of this is not that there are NATO troops in Ukraine and present at the perifery. Everybody knows this and certainly Russia is very well aware. The news value of this is, if there is any, is that EU leaders, following the lead of Macron, are starting to flaunt with it out of desperation. What they hope to accomplish with this is a matter of speculation. Maybe they really don’t know it themselves. But it could be that since NATO troops inside Ukraine are a legitimate target for Russia. And so when Russia eliminates a NATO contingency in Russia, this being known enables them to construe a better story then to have the obedient media first have to clear the confusion about NATO troops being there in the first place and then run with that story to hope to shame-pressure the US into reverting their recent change of course to retract themselves from the Ukrainian qaugmire and redirect their military attention toward China.
Sikorski is foolish in the extreme to say these things out loud. He’s blown their cover, their precious “strategic ambiguity”, forced Putin’s hand -to go further than he otherwise would have done; and, all without any perceivable strategic plan of any plausible specificity.
Russia may accidently bomb NATO troops but they don’t have the ability to target much back from the front lines. You believe the American people are paying that much attention to this war? They’re too busy trying to figure out who the Golden Bachelor is going to pick.
If I gave the impression that I thought that the European leadership are in any way capable of strategizing competently or think things through before committing to some policy, or are any way sensible at all, this was never my intention.
I can’t argue with that.
Rational [sic] Thinker says: “Russia may accidently bomb NATO troops but they don’t have the ability to target much back from the front lines.”
Au contraire. If you were actually following this conflict you would know your statement is false.
Just one example: on 13 March 2022 Russian missiles struck the Yaroviv military base in western Ukraine (that means the target was very far away from the front lines). There were extensive casualties and a lot of foreign volunteers who were barracked there decided that they no longer had an interest in participating in a war against the Russians. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yavoriv_military_base_attack
Oh, and what’s the size of a military base? You can area bomb anything and get lucky. Nice try though.
You said (I’m assuming you can read): Russia may accidently bomb NATO troops but they don’t have the ability to target much back from the front lines. (emphasis added).
The Russians successfully targeted Yaroviv. They actually successfully targeted buildings within the area of the base. Here is proof that your statement is nonsense. Have the integrity to admit that you haven been proven wrong.
Tip: if your intent in your original comment was to indicate a particular degree of accuracy (targeting to within 5 nanometers, for example) you should be more explicit. Otherwise, people will read what you said and respond to that, which is what I did.
You may want to see if the UkronaziFanBoyz School for Trolls can give you a refresher course or refund your tuition. You’re not very good at this.
You are correct. I should have been more specific (but you obviously knew what I meant with your “tip”. I’ll try to be more linear in the future.)
UkronaziFanBoyz? You mean these Russian Nazis in Ukraine?
https://euromaidanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/russianfascism1.jpeg
(Seems you’re not very good at this either.)
As if Russia is not aware, including the number of dead polish soldiers that they are burying.
Looks like the Nazi collaborators of Europe, want another chance to take out Russia, WHY? Russians sacrificed more than anyone to take OUT the Nazis and today, the Russians are one of the few Nations left with any sense of morality. The only reason there is a war between Ukraine and Russia, is because the EU/USA/UK thrive on WARS, thrive on the blood/misery of others. Russia wants the war to stop and the Ukrainian Zionist Zelensky, with the help of NATO, says NO. There are NO laws, NO rules for the Zionist in Europe, Zionist in Israel, Zionist in the USA, that they will uphold, thus NATO has become a tool for Zionist Aggression. Does NATO have the legal authority to use weapons, men, to help Ukraine fight Russia? When the so called “Democracies” are LAWLESS, how do we protect ourselves?
“Looks like the Nazi collaborators of Europe, want another chance to take out Russia, WHY?”
Why? Because the Eurominions are effectively vassals of the US and Russia is a great power that the US fears could become a regional hegemon and challenge US supremacy in various spheres. See: “Wolfowitz Doctrine”
Ginah, you are SO correct!
No one cares about the small amount of NATO troops in Ukraine, least of all Russia who can take them out any time they feel the waste of a missile is justified. But let Macron try to send French troops across the border into Ukraine as an operational movement and Russia will kill them all.
Well, maybe not all. Anyway, having those troops killed would be trivial compared to other consequences of sending them into battle with Russia.
And it’s not gonna happen. Macron is a blabbering moron and, even if he actually tried to send French forces to fight in Ukraine, the rest of the US-NATO alliance would promptly stuff him back into his box. That would probably be good for him, since the French population might well do worse things to him if he tried this crazy scheme.
The stupid idea apparently is to station these troops as tripwires spread across the expected path of Russia’s troops so as to slow/stop their advance, thinking that Russia would not want to kill the Nato sacrificial lambs and thus start a bigger war.
Russia must and indeed has already told them however that ANY troops in Ukraine are fair game and will be attacked immediately.
Exactly. As Martyanov says literally every day, this is what happens when people who don’t understand modern war and the military balance make military decisions. It’s endemic to the entire West – including the West’s actual military leaders – which is why WWIII is so much more likely now.
That is to be expected,,how soon the Europeans have forgotten the hell of WW-2,,idiots!
Don’t thank us yet. Wait until your country is wiped off the map, then thank your lucky stars.
As they should be. Recall that Clinton was able to convince NATO to bomb the hell out of Belgrade for their mistreatment of Kosovo, in spite of it really pissing Putin off. And Kosovo isn’t even in NATO.
it didn’t piss Mr Putin off because Yeltsin was President at the time, and finally sent Russian troops to Belgrade airport..
“. . . finally sent Russian troops to Belgrade airport.”
And got there first.
The point was what NATO DID, not about Putin,,Geez..
Are they wearing NATO uniforms?
So it’s only a matter of time now when the Russians will use tactical nuclear weapons.
But Biden in SOU told everyone “In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine.”
Apparently the CIA, Spec OPs, military support personnel (supply, intelligence, maintenance, etc. are not to be referred to as “soldiers at war”
“Push that button there, and then that red button over there…”
Nope, none of them are at war.
Mr. Applebaum is delighted. Poles — not so much.