Poland’s Sikorski warns Russia could stage false flag attack on NATO

Radek Sikorski warned that Russia could stage a “false flag operation” on Russian territory to create a pretext for attacking a NATO country, sharpening Poland’s message as Europe’s eastern flank remains under strain. The Polish deputy prime minister made the remark in a CBS News interview published June 25, 2026, in a conversation with Aidan Stretch that focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine, NATO and Polish-Ukrainian relations.

The warning lands as Poland sits at the center of NATO’s defensive posture. The alliance launched Eastern Sentry in September 2025 to strengthen vigilance along the entire eastern flank, and at the 2025 Hague summit allies agreed to spend 5% of GDP annually on defense and defense-related security spending by 2035, including at least 3.5% for core defense requirements. Poland is already moving well ahead of that target, with NATO and other reporting indicating Warsaw spent roughly 4.3% to 4.5% of GDP on defense in 2025 after a major post-2022 military buildup.

Sikorski’s comments also reflect how Warsaw is trying to keep pressure on Moscow while preserving support for Kyiv. In March 2026, he pressed the European Union on Ukraine support, and Polish defense officials have continued to describe eastern-flank security as a priority, including the response to Eastern Sentry after airspace violations. That mix of deterrence and diplomacy has made Poland one of the most closely watched NATO capitals as the war enters another pivotal phase.

The interview unfolded alongside the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, which Poland and Ukraine co-hosted on June 25 and 26, 2026, to rally support for reconstruction, investment and resilience. But the conference also exposed how strained Polish-Ukrainian ties have become. On June 21, 2026, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the political conflict with Ukraine a “strategic mistake,” warning that the row hurts both sides.

The dispute deepened after Ukraine downgraded its representation at the Gdańsk conference from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. On June 19, Zelenskiy returned a state decoration after Poland’s president stripped him of it amid a broader historical dispute tied to World War Two-era memory. Even as the two countries remain locked together by geography, weapons transit and reconstruction needs, the public quarrel has made Poland’s role more complicated at exactly the moment NATO’s eastern front is being treated as a test of allied endurance.