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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland rushed security forces and equipment to its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave after border guards spotted suspicious activity shortly after midnight, warning that tensions stemming from Russia could continue.
Speaking to reporters before a Cabinet meeting, Tusk said border guards had told him of the movement on the Kaliningrad frontier. “There were people carrying flashlights,” he said. “We very quickly sent the necessary security forces and equipment to the area.”
Tusk said Poland believed it had prevented a possible provocation, but that officials could not confirm whether the other side had intended one.
Tusk said border guards had judged the situation serious enough to require full mobilization and checks on site. He said Russian-linked tension and escalation could persist, and that Poland therefore needed to stay on constant alert.
Tusk said allied security services had long cautioned that Poland could face serious provocations, or sabotage attempts prepared by hostile intelligence services, along its border with Russia. He said that information matched warnings relayed to him by Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, during a visit to Poland.
Tusk said the government had received tips that incidents could occur, including armed people entering Polish territory. In response, it decided to send police to the country’s northeast and to reinforce border guards and counterterrorism units.
Poland’s national police chief, Marek Boron, had earlier said an operation was carried out on Nov. 2 on the strength of intelligence that sabotage could be attempted on the Kaliningrad border.
Kaliningrad is Russia’s westernmost territory. It has been an exclave since 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved. An exclave is a piece of a state’s territory cut off from its mainland by another state. Kaliningrad sits on the Baltic coast between Poland and Lithuania, both members of NATO and the European Union.
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