Poland's Foreign Minister: “Drones were non-functional, which suggests that Russia tried to test us without triggering a war” / Keith Kellogg, advice for Europeans: do not press Trump!

Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, told The Guardian that the incursion of Russian drones into the Polish air space last week was a Kremlin's attempt to test NATO by gradual escalations, which does not cause a large -scale reaction, Cites News.ro.

Sikorski confirmed that although the drones used in the foray were capable of transporting ammunition, those who arrived in Poland were not loaded with explosives. “Interesting is that all were non -functional, which suggests that Russia tried to test us without triggering a war,” he told The Guardian, in Kiev.

He rejected the suggestions that the Polish air defense was not prepared for the foray, given that some of the drones traveled hundreds of kilometers on the Polish territory and that, according to the reports, only three or four of the 19 drones were shot down. “The drones did not reach their targets and caused minor damage to properties, no one was injured. If it had happened in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian definitions, they would have been considered 100%success,” he commented.

NATO announced on Friday that it will take several planes on the eastern flank of the Alliance to protect against future drones attacks.

Sikorski: Only the hard countermeasures work in the case of Putin

On Saturday, Polish and Allied aircraft were again carried out due to a new threat of drones in western Ukraine. The airport in the city of Lublin, in the east of the country was closed, and the inhabitants of the border areas received SMS alerts to be cautious. However, this time no incursion has been reported.

Sikorski said that Poland's response would have been “much harsher” if this week's attack had caused injured or dead on its territory, but refused to give details of how such an answer could look in a future hypothetical scenario. “With an aggressor and a liar like Putin, only the hardest countermeasures work,” he said.

The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, said the previous days that the incursion of drones brought his country closer to a military conflict “than in any other moment after World War II.” Also, Sikorski rejected Donald Trump's suggestion that the incursion “could have been a mistake”, arguing that too many drones were involved. “You can believe that one or two have deviated from the target, but 19 errors in one night, in seven hours, I'm sorry, I don't think,” he said.

Europeans learn from Ukrainians how to handle drones

Anti-Dronic Polish teams will receive training from Ukrainian operators to help defense against future attacks, Radoslaw Sikorski revealed. “Ukrainians have better equipment to cope with Russian drones and have a much deeper and more updated experience in resistance against the Russian army,” he admitted. “It is something that the public and the governments of the West must integrate urgently into their thinking – that the Ukrainians are the ones who will train us how to oppose Russia, and not the other way around,” added the head of Polish diplomacy.

The training of Polish teams on the best Ukrainian practices of drone control will take place at a NATO training center, a “safer environment” than in Ukraine.

Romania has become the latest NATO member state that reported a foray of a drone into its air space on Saturday. The Ministry of Defense said that the Romanian airspace was violated by a drone during a Russian attack on the Ukraine infrastructure and that two F-16 fighter jets were sent on Saturday night to monitor the situation, Guardian mentions.

Tips for Europeans: Don't press Trump!

Radoslaw Sikorski spoke to The Guardian in the margin of an annual conference in Kiev, who brought together the Ukrainian elite and international politicians to discuss the country's prospects after more than three and a half years wide.

President Donald Trump addressed the conference with a short video message, in which he repeated his assertion that the war would not have begun if he had been president. He claimed that he has made more progress to peace in the last three months than Joe Biden did in three years.

Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, was also in Kiev and told the conference that the US president is “exasperated” by Putin. However, he warned the European leaders, frustrated by Trump's gentle appearance towards the Russian leader, not to press him too hard.

“One advice I would give to everyone who works with President Trump is not to put it in a situation to believe it is used, because this is probably the worst position you can find out about it,” Kellogg said.

Sikorski said he hopes that Trump will receive the Nobel Peace Prize if he manages to obtain “fair peace” in this conflict. He explained that in his vision, equitable peace would mean that Ukraine would exist “in some borders defended” and be a Ukraine “who integrates with the West.”

At the suggestion that Trump has so far signs that he would exert pressure on Putin to accept such a result, Radoslaw Sikorski replied: “He has his personal style, we respect him, but we will judge him.”

Sikorski's warning about security guarantees for Ukraine

At a meeting in Paris earlier this month, 26 countries committed to contribute to a post-war security mission for Ukraine, some of them with terrestrial troops. Some European countries have launched the idea that Ukraine, although unlikely to be admitted to NATO in the near future, could receive guarantees “of the type of article 5” after a future peace agreement, to prevent Russia from attacking it again.

“Some countries talk about terrestrial troops, we really want this, because it is a real discouragement measure that Ukraine will need,” said Ihor Jovkva, chief counselor of President Zelenski.

However, Poland said he would not contribute with troops to such a mission, and Sikorski, speaking to the conference, warned about an exacerbated rhetoric regarding future guarantees.

“The security guarantees have the role of discouraging a potential opponent. So what we say is that if you reach a kind of peace, next time that Russia will try something against Ukraine, we may enter the war with Russia. Now it seems to me that this is not very credible. Because if you want to go to the war, there is nothing to do with Russia. Guarantee that is not credible, ”he warned.