Poland’s Deputy Minister of Defense warned that Russia’s regular missile and drone strikes near the Polish border are a deliberate test of NATO’s response, and according to CIA intelligence, the Kremlin’s immediate plans include large-scale scenarios of destabilization and sabotage directly within European countries.

This was reported by Dengi.ua citing an interview with Cezary Tomczyk on TVN24.

Why the Coming Winter Could Be a Decisive Turning Point in the War

Cezary Tomczyk, Deputy Head of the Polish Ministry of Defense, emphasized that the Russian Armed Forces’ attacks on western regions of Ukraine have a strategic goal - to disrupt and completely paralyze the logistical corridors for military supplies from allies.

According to Warsaw’s assessment, the coming months - and especially the winter - could mark a critical turning point in the course of the fighting:

  • Moscow intends to exploit the deterioration of infrastructure to turn the tide of the campaign in its favor;
  • to thwart these plans, Ukraine needs an urgent and maximum concentration of Western aid, primarily in the form of additional air defense systems and ammunition for them.

Testing the Alliance and the Kremlin’s Sabotage Plans in Europe

Tomczyk stated outright that strikes on targets in the immediate vicinity of NATO member states’ borders are an overt test of the alliance’s resilience and response speed.

Citing data from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the deputy minister noted that Moscow’s plans already extend beyond the Ukrainian theater of operations and directly affect European capitals:

  • an unprecedented hybrid war: preparations for sabotage operations and provocations within key EU states (in particular, incidents similar to those recorded in Germany);
  • crises on the bloc’s borders: the threat of targeted operations in border areas is growing, primarily in the Baltic states and on NATO’s eastern flank.

The Polish Ministry of Defense has warned that such hybrid incursions carry the risk of uncontrolled escalation and, in the absence of firm preventive deterrence, could rapidly escalate into an open conflict on a significantly larger scale.