The Kremlin on Sunday responded to reports in Western media about the US warning Poland about potential Russian attacks on the NATO country, dismissing them as “horror stories.”
The Telegraph and several other outlets reported that the US had warned that Russia was planning a “provocation” on Polish soil to “test NATO’s resolve” with the goal of getting NATO to suspend support for Ukraine, as NATO-backed Ukrainian drone attacks have been killing civilians and setting oil infrastructure ablaze across Russia.
The reports said that potential provocations could include drone attacks on infrastructure or potential ground incursions disguised as a rescue mission for a helicopter that malfunctioned. The sources speaking to the outlets presented the plans as a way to create a scenario in which Russian or Belarusian troops could enter Poland, and then the two sides could enter into some sort of negotiations to get them to withdraw.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the claims were part of an effort to demonize Russia. “Many horror stories about the Russian Federation are published. This is an element of demonization of our country, which is constantly used by the Western media,” he said.
The reports alleged that the US warned a potential Russian attack could happen in the coming months, and Polish President Donald Tusk said Warsaw was preparing “very intensively” for a range of possible scenarios.
The leaks about the alleged US warnings come as the Polish government has been in a spat with the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over his honoring of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a Ukrainian nationalist group formed during World War II that collaborated with Nazi Germany and carried out attacks and massacres against Polish civilians.
