Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament on Thursday that intelligence assessments suggest Russia is planning to launch drone and missile attacks against countries that support Ukraine. According to Tusk, these strikes are intended to weaken NATO's ability to act collectively in response.

"According to intelligence assessments, Russia's plan … includes hybrid drone and missile strikes against countries supporting Ukraine, including Poland," Tusk said. He did not specify which intelligence agencies provided the warning.

Tusk added that these potential strikes would be "accidental" in nature, aimed at paralyzing or at least weakening the resolve of NATO states to invoke the relevant NATO provisions in the event of aggression against a member country. He also suggested that such attacks could coincide with "political changes in certain European countries" that bring to power forces calling for peace—or rather, the total capitulation of Ukraine.

The statement comes amid suspicions among European countries that Moscow is behind a series of acts of sabotage in recent months aimed at pressuring allies, especially Germany, which is helping Kyiv resist Russia's full-scale invasion. The Kremlin has vigorously denied these allegations.

Earlier on Thursday, Poland scrambled military planes in response to a Russian attack in western Ukraine close to the Polish border. Airports in Rzeszow and Lublin were temporarily closed, and residents of two eastern regions received air raid warnings. Local media reported sirens and schoolchildren seeking shelter.

Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Poland was strengthening airspace protection. "We have increased F-16 and helicopter activity, and are reinforcing our air defence and rapid response systems," he wrote on X. Tusk said he would visit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday to discuss cooperation within the Integrated Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition.

Source: www.aljazeera.com