Poland rushes police and counter-terror units to Russian border after 'individuals with flashlights' are spotted crossing from Kaliningrad
Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, whose deputy Radosław Sikorski says he now keeps an emergency evacuation backpack, rice stocks and a hand pump at home.The special operations headquarters established near Poland's border with the Kaliningrad region, as Polish police chief Marek Boroń warned the months ahead are critical for all of Europe.
Polish PM Donald Tusk told a cabinet meeting Tuesday that intelligence from allied services had warned of possible armed incursions into Polish territory in the first half of November, prompting an overnight emergency deployment. Counterterrorism units, military personnel and reinforced Border Guard detachments are now operating in the Warmian-Masurian and Podlaskie regions near Kaliningrad. Tusk said the flashlight-wielding individuals were moving from the Russian exclave and that forces mobilised in time to prevent what he called an "attempted provocation."
Poland's police chief Marek Boroń confirmed a special operations command centre has been established at National Police Headquarters to coordinate the response.
Tusk warned the months ahead are 'critical' for all of Europe, adding: 'I'm obsessed with the threat, which is clearly growing month by month.'
In late September, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter had already crossed 1,000 feet into NATO airspace from Kaliningrad — Poland then saw it as a deliberate test of alliance defences.
