Russia will target Poland’s NATO nuclear weapons if they are installed, Moscow warns

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned on Thursday that NATO’s nuclear facilities, if permanently installed on Polish territory, will become a military target for Russia, Xinhua and Reuters report, Agerpres reports.

“The expansion of the practice of NATO’s joint nuclear missions – regardless of which country or countries would join those that already take part in this practice – has a purely destabilizing character. And in fact threatening,” said Riabkov, in an interview with the Russian news agency TASS.

He emphasized that the practice of joint nuclear missions of NATO countries near the Russian borders exacerbates security threats.

“And I’m not referring to the permanent development, which is also intensively discussed by demagogues from Warsaw. Therefore, all those politicians who are now enthusiastically discussing such a scheme in Poland and beyond, for their own reasons, must understand: moves in this direction will not contribute to Poland’s security, but the respective facilities will certainly become a aim. They will be at the forefront of our military planning,” insisted the Russian official.

Ryabkov referred to the ongoing discussions regarding the deployment of NATO nuclear facilities in Poland as an “evolving matter”.

Moscow is closely watching how Warsaw deals with this issue, he assured.

In an interview published on Monday by the daily newspaper Fakt, Polish President Andrzej Duda stated that the Polish authorities have repeatedly discussed with the US the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons in Poland, as part of the alliance’s “nuclear sharing” program, adding that Poland is ready to do so if necessary.