“The operation in Ukraine is being carried out with contract forces. There are a lot of volunteer soldiers who operate for pay and loot, for what they can steal. The main professional forces are still intact. Kaliningrad is a huge military garrison,” said Witold Waszczykowski in an interview with Katarzyna Gójska on the programme “W punkt” (“On the point” – editor’s note) on Republika TV. “For Lithuania, it is a huge threat,” he added.
The former head of Polish diplomacy stressed on the programme that despite what one might think about Russia after the course of the war in Ukraine, it is a dangerous state. He said this in the context of the threats the country made against Lithuania yesterday. “Unfortunately, Russia has the potential,” the MEP claimed.
“The operation in Ukraine is primarily carried out with contract forces. There are a lot of volunteer soldiers who operate for pay and loot, for what they can steal. The main professional forces are still intact. Kaliningrad is a huge military garrison. It is the “export elite” of the Russian military and in the case of the Baltic states, not just Lithuania, it is a huge threat,” Witold Waszczykowski said.
He added that by using the term “special operation”, Russia was formally not at war with Ukraine, so it did not have to announce conscription.
“Therefore, the main human forces capable of serving in the powerful Russian army are not involved either. In Ukraine, representatives of Asian, remote, Siberian communities are engaged, etc. I would not underestimate. I would remind you that in 2007, during the Munich Conference, Putin announced what Russia is doing now. Nobody wanted to believe it,” said Waszczykowski.
The former head of the Polish Foreign Ministry believes that Vladimir Putin is capable of leading an extreme war that is “destructive and murderous”.
“85 per cent of 140 million Russians support a war in Ukraine, and 70 per cent of them would even support a nuclear strike on Warsaw,” Waszczykowski warned.