Poland says it would defeat Russia quickly if Moscow attempted an attack on the alliance amid an increasing number of hybrid attacks on Europe. Foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorksi said a victory against Vladimir Putin’s forces would be swift due to the “overwhelming superiority” of its air forces, even without support from the United States. We have overwhelming superiority over Russia in air power.
General, correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s something like 2,500 aircraft,” he said during a discussion at the Yalta European Strategy meeting in Kyiv on Saturday. The comments were in relation to a potential conflict between Russia and Nato and not about the prospect of a direct war between Russia and Poland. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Sikorski of “Russophobia of the brain” in discussing the conflict.
Speculation has abounded that Moscow is plotting to attack Nato, claims that the country has denied. Last month CIA director John Ratcliffe made a short trip to Moscow - the last time that a CIA chief visited the country personally was in the weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Several sources familiar with the discussions told CBS News that Ratcliffe had made the visit to warn Russia against an attack on Nato.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claims and said: “A lot of such scare stories are being published right now. Of course, they have nothing to do with reality.” But European leaders are consistent that Putin may be trying to intimidate western countries. On Sunday, a Russian drone attack on a train on Ukraine’s border with Nato member Poland occurred shortly after another train holding former prime minister Boris Johnson left Kyiv after a security conference.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday said that such attacks were mean to scare Western countries from supporting Ukraine. We should show that we are there for Ukraine and we are not scared,” she told reporters in Rovaniemi, Finland where she attended a summit on Arctic strategy. Recent analysis by the Institute for the Study of War suggested that Russian forces made “near-zero net gains since March 2026”.
Sikorski had previously floated the idea of a no-fly zone over its country after drone incursions in September 2025. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
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