Home · World · Sep 14 archive
Nato would defeat Russia quickly if ‘we took our gloves off’, says Poland
Confirmed
In Short: Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has warned that NATO would defeat Russia quickly in a conventional war, according to reports from Kyiv Post and Dagens.com.
Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has warned that NATO would defeat Russia quickly in a conventional war, according to reports from Kyiv Post and Dagens.com. Sikorski, speaking at the Yalta European Strategy annual meeting in Kyiv, emphasized NATO’s air power superiority, noting that the alliance has roughly 2,500 aircraft, compared to Russia’s estimated 300 combat aircraft.
Sikorski also highlighted that the combined defense budgets of the Baltic states and Nordic countries alone now exceed Russia’s, adding to NATO’s strategic advantage. He suggested that if Ukrainians had knocked out roughly half of Russia’s refining capacity in six months, European militaries could finish the other half in six weeks.
The comments come amid an increasing number of hybrid attacks on Europe, with speculation that Moscow is plotting to attack NATO. While Russia has denied these claims, the remarks have raised tensions and underscored the ongoing security concerns in the region.
Sikorski’s blunt assessment of NATO’s capabilities has not sat well with the Kremlin, with Zakharova’s post, republished by Russian state outlet Sputnik, serving as Moscow’s sharpest reply yet to a NATO foreign minister’s public wartime assessment.
What's confirmed
- According to Kyiv Post, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told the Yalta European Strategy annual meeting in Kyiv on Saturday that the alliance would “defeat Russia quite quickly” if attacked, citing NATO’s roughly 2,500 aircraft and what he called an overwhelming edge in air power.
- If Ukrainians had knocked out roughly half of Russia’s refining capacity in six months, he said, European militaries could finish the other half in six weeks.
- Sikorski also noted that the combined defense budgets of the Baltic states and Nordic countries alone now exceed Russia’s.
- “If Russia attacked us and we took our gloves off, I think we would defeat Russia quite quickly. We have overwhelming superiority over Russia in air power. General, correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s something like 2,500 aircraft,” Sikorski said during a Sept. 12 discussion at the annual Yalta European Strategy meeting in Kyiv.
What's still developing
- Poland’s top diplomat used the podium of an international security conference in the Ukrainian capital to lay out, in blunter language than any allied minister has used this year, how a conventional war between NATO and Russia would actually go.