HELSINKI: Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to invade other countries following his decision to start the conflict in Ukraine, Polish President Karol Nawrocki warned on Tuesday.
“We do not trust Vladimir Putin’s good intentions,” Nawrocki told reporters at a press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in Helsinki.
Poland and Finland share borders with Russia, and both NATO members were put on edge by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“While waiting, of course, for a long-term peace, permanent peace, which is necessary to our regions, we believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to also invade other countries,” Poland’s newly elected nationalist president said.
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“That is exactly why we are developing our armed forces, we are developing our partnership and our allied relations,” he added, without specifying any particular measures.
He said the “security architecture” throughout the region had changed and that US President Donald Trump was “the only leader of the free world” who could force Putin to negotiate.
Last week, Trump offered to send more troops to Poland as he welcomed Nawrocki to the White House with a military flyover.
Stubb has meanwhile spoken to Trump regularly in recent months as European powers push to end the war in Ukraine.
“We try to explain that Putin cannot be trusted, that Putin is playing his usual delay tactics,” Stubb said.
The warnings reflected similar worries expressed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday that Putin’s “imperialist plan wouldn’t end with the conquest of Ukraine”, rather it would be just the start.
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