Polish foreign minister warns: Russia may be preparing “something big” this year

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has warned that Russia may be preparing a major operation this year and could stage a false-flag attack to justify further mobilization.

“We are receiving information — we are not disclosing sources, but there are many of them — that Russia is preparing something big this year,” Sikorski said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Thursday, according to local media.

“I believe Putin needs a pretext for mobilization, so that he can carry out a false-flag attack and tell the Russian people: ‘We are under attack and that is why we must mobilize,'” he added.

Sikorski did not specify what the reported operation might involve. Asked about possible scenarios, he said Belarusians were concerned they might be drawn into the war in Ukraine.

He also warned that Baltic countries with Russian minorities could face escalation, saying NATO must be ready to deter potential aggression. A full Russian invasion of a NATO member would be “crazy,” he said, suggesting that Moscow might instead pursue a less clear-cut action that would make it harder for the alliance to invoke the mutual-defense clause of Article 5.

Sikorski said Russia could continue its war in Ukraine for one or two more years despite economic pressure, unless Ukrainian attacks destroy more than half of its oil-refinery capacity.