The Kremlin has vowed to destroy Warsaw if Poland enters a conflict with Russia as tensions skyrocket between the countries.
Nikolai Patrushev, a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to eradicate the Polish state if war with Nato broke out.
In an interview with Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, Patrushev said: ‘If Poland enters into military action against Russia, our country will use the entire arsenal of forces and means at its disposal, and Warsaw will cease to exist within two or three days.’
The comments came after Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said that Nato could ‘quite quickly’ defeat Russia if Moscow attacked the alliance.
Sikorski told the annual Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv: ‘If Russia attacked us and we took our gloves off, I think we would defeat Russia quite quickly.’
The foreign minister said Nato’s airpower superiority over Putin’s army was overwhelming, citing their 2,500 military aircraft at the alliance’s disposal.
These remarks have sparked fury in the Kremlin, with Patrushev saying they were an ‘amateurish assessment of our country’s military might.’
He explained that Russia was not using ‘their full potential’ in their war against Ukraine.
Putin’s ally also reiterated reassurances out of Moscow that his boss has no intention of going to war with Europe.
However Nato countries Germany, Denmark, the UK and Poland have accused Russia of using drones to commit sabotage, arson and surveillance.
A drone rigged with explosives and an ‘unknown substance’ was found next to a Ukrainian cargo plane in Leipzig in August.
Denmark confirmed on Tuesday that one of its air force helicopters was fired on with flares while it carried out surveillance of a Russian frigate in the Baltic Sea.
A Nato fighter jet also had to be called in to shoot down a drone in Lithuanian airspace overnight, although the origin of the weapon has not yet been confirmed.
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