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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned Europe and the U.S. that Russia’s war in Ukraine is escalating and threatening to engulf Europe.
European leaders have been told by NATO that Russia’s incursions and provocations aimed at members of the alliance look increasingly like an “escalation” of Moscow’s war on Ukraine, Mr. Tusk said in a social media post Saturday.
“The escalation from Russia’s side is progressing,” Mr. Tusk wrote after a call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. “The next six months will be decisive, and we must be prepared as Poland and NATO for various scenarios.”
Mr. Tusk made the comments after the deadliest Russian attack on Ukraine this year. A Friday night drone strike on an ammunition warehouse in the village of Myla, in the Bucha district near Kyiv, killed at least 38.
Russia has sharply intensified its air campaign in the 4½-year-old war, with air raid sirens wailing repeatedly and explosions and the rumble of air defenses, according to reports by The Associated Press.
The shift in Russian tactics has further strained Ukraine’s air defenses while keeping civilians on alert for hours. Previously, daytime attacks on the capital were relatively rare.
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Mr. Rutte has characterized Russia’s actions along the eastern flank of the NATO alliance as a slowly intensifying campaign of hybrid attacks intended to directly interfere with democratic allies in the region.
Ukraine is signaling that another front may open in the war as well. Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of the Office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Friday that Mr. Putin had ordered his military to prepare for operations that could include the border of Belarus. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko met with Mr. Putin over the weekend to discuss what Mr. Lukashenko’s office called “current regional and international issues, as well as security matters.”
Russia’s saber-rattling is echoing across Europe.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany had moved “further into the crosshairs of hybrid attackers” after investigators determined that an explosive drone found near a Ukrainian cargo aircraft at Leipzig airport in August was likely linked to a foiled Russian sabotage plot.
Mr. Merz said those responsible “will pay for it.”
A Congressional Research Service report released Aug. 11 found Russian-linked hybrid attacks across Europe “increasing in number and severity.” One study showed such incidents aimed at interrupting or discouraging European support for Ukraine have quadrupled from 2023 to 2024.
Lithuania, a NATO ally bordering Russia, announced that it had deployed one of its air defense systems to protect its capital, Vilnius, according to local news outlets.
Analysts said Russia’s posturing has yet to include arraying troops in greater numbers along the NATO border, but its strategic footing has shifted.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on social media that it had conducted a successful test Friday of a “mobile-based solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.” Hours earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said escalation of the conflict is one of the “traditional horror stories often published in Western media,” but he did say that “peace talks” over Ukraine are “currently on a deep pause.”
The launch and hardened language around Ukraine followed a surprise trip to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Tuesday. That trip was, at least in part, to urge Russia not to attack NATO countries, to discuss ending the war in Ukraine and to warn against aiding Iran, according to officials familiar with the talks. Mr. Ratcliffe proposed a trilateral summit among Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy during the meeting, according to Axios.
“We would like to see the war with Ukraine end,” Mr. Trump told talk show host Glenn Beck when asked about why Mr. Ratcliffe was in Russia. “Something may come out of it. We’re working very hard to get that war ended.”
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