Polish Foreign Minister warns citizens to prepare for war

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has urged citizens to brace for a potential large-scale conflict, warning that Europe faces its gravest security threat in decades.

Addressing the Polish parliament, the Sejm, Radosław Sikorski said the country must be ready for a war “of the scale that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers saw,” invoking the devastation of World War I and World War II.

He pointed directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of prolonging aggression in Ukraine and posing a growing threat to NATO’s eastern flank. “Putin doesn’t want peace, only surrender,” Sikorski told lawmakers, adding that any Ukrainian defeat would heighten, not reduce, the danger to neighbouring states.

Poland, which borders both Russia and Ukraine, would stand on the frontline of any further escalation, he stressed.

The foreign minister cautioned against complacency, arguing that awareness of the threat should mobilise society rather than paralyse it.

“Poland cannot afford to believe this is not its war,” he said.

His warning came amid renewed military tension in the region.

NATO air defences were placed on alert in Romania after a Russian drone approached its airspace during strikes on Ukrainian ports along the Danube River in the Odesa region.

NATO fighter jets were also scrambled twice in one week, once in Poland and once in Romania, in response to missile and drone threats.

Fighting inside Ukraine has intensified. The Dnipropetrovsk region faced sustained artillery and drone attacks, while four people, including a teenager, were injured in a strike on Zaporizhzhia. Russian forces also hit a hotel in the border city of Sumy.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces targeted an oil depot in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region and struck an energy facility in the Russian city of Belgorod, cutting power to thousands.

Sikorski warned that hybrid tactics such as drone incursions, and disinformation campaigns are already being deployed, underscoring the need for vigilance and preparedness across Europe.