NATO has just three years to prepare for a Russian attack, the chief of Polish national security has warned, amid growing concerns over the war in Ukraine.
With Vladimir Putin’s 21-month-long invasion dragging into another winter, Kyiv has suffered a series of setbacks that suggest the war is becoming ‘frozen’.
The United States and the EU are struggling to secure further packages of military aid to Ukraine, which in-turn has struggled to make major advances in its 2023 counteroffensive that many hoped would deal more blows to Moscow’s armies.As a result, attention is turning to the threat the Kremlin could pose to NATO and the EU’s eastern borders shared with Russia and its ally Belarus.
In one troubling report from a leading German think tank, it has been argued that the NATO alliance must be ready to fend off a Russian attack within six to ten years.
But according to Jacek Siewiera, the chief of Poland’s National Security Bureau and a minister in the country’s chancellery, the report has underestimated the time frame.
NATO has just three years to prepare for a Russian attack, the chief of a Polish national security has warned, amid growing concerns over the war in Ukraine. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers patrol around Avdiivka, Ukraine on December 4.
‘Unfortunately […] this analysis is consistent with studies prepared in the USA,’ he told Polish Catholic newspaper Nasz Dziennik in an interview that was also published on Poland’s presidential website.
‘However, in my opinion, the time frames presented by German analysts are too optimistic. If we want to avoid war, NATO countries on the eastern flank should adopt a shorter, 3-year time horizon to prepare for confrontation,’ he warned.
‘This is the time when a potential must be created on the eastern flank that would be a clear signal deterring aggression.’
Since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, senior Kremlin officials have hinted that it was just the beginning of the president’s imperial ambitions that could see him set his sights on NATO’s eastern-most member states.
With a full-scale war at NATO’s doorstep for the first time in years, such threats have not been taken idly by European nations.
Both Finland and Sweden signed up to the military alliance, setting aside their decade-long stance on military non-alignment. Finland officially became a member on April 4 this year, while Sweden’s application is currently being held up.
Meanwhile, Germany was among several countries to increase their defence spending in the wake of the invasion.
But concern remains over the threat posed by Russia.