Russia has begun the “period of preparation for war” with Poland, says the general who leads the Polish army
August 10, 2025, Warsaw, Poland: Wieslaw Kukula (Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army) looks at soldiers marching down Wislostrada during a military parade on the occasion of Polish Army Day. PHOTO: Marek Antoni Iwanczuk / Zuma Press / Profimedia
Russia has begun preparing for war with Poland as Moscow continues to step up cyber attacks and acts of sabotage on Polish territory, the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, General Wieslaw Kukula, said on Monday.
“Russia has started the period of preparation for war. They are building an environment here designed to create favorable conditions for a potential aggression on Polish territory,” Kukula told Polskie Radio, Poland's public radio station, according to The Kyiv Independent.
Kukula's claims came just hours before Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that a railway line connecting Warsaw and Lublin had been blown up in an “unprecedented act of sabotage”. That rail road also served as a link between Ukraine and vital shipments of Western military aid.
“Unprecedented Act of Sabotage in Poland”. Prime Minister Tusk announces that an explosive device has destroyed a section of railway also used to transport weapons to Ukraine
Although Poland has not officially named a suspect in the blast, Warsaw has sounded the alarm about the increasing cases of sabotage and espionage activities that have targeted Poland in recent years, with many incidents linked to Russian or Belarusian intelligence services.
Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sîbiga, suggested the explosion may hint at a new Russian hybrid attack designed to “test reactions”.
“If anyone has been to war, they know that what we are experiencing today is not a proper war; it is, in fact, a pre-war situation – or what we call a hybrid war,” Kukula said, before the railway explosion.
The senior Polish general's comments echo warnings from Western officials about Moscow's escalating hybrid operations across Europe, including drone incursions, sabotage and cyber attacks.
German intelligence chief Martin Jaeger told lawmakers in Berlin on October 13 that Russia is ready to test Europe's borders and escalate current tensions into open confrontation at any time as Moscow continues to violate NATO airspace with drones and fighter jets.
When asked to respond to recent statements by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who compared the current global situation to 1939 (on the eve of World War II) and 1981 (the height of the Cold War), Kukula said that the Pentagon chief's statements are a “very good comparison, because in reality today everything depends on our attitude – whether we succeed to discourage the opponent or, on the contrary, to encourage him to resort to aggression”.
“To be honest, we are always in a pre-war period; even the Cold War was such a period. It is a matter of managing this pre-war period, of building an effective deterrence policy, based largely on our defensive capabilities, but also on the attitude of the citizens,” added the Polish general.
In early September, Polish and NATO forces shot down several Russian drones over Polish territory, marking the first such incident – the downing of Moscow's weapons by NATO – since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The incursions have prompted calls to bolster allied defenses, while some NATO members have called for Russian jets to be shot down if necessary.
