“Have you already started drinking, or what?” Zakharova ridiculed Poland's plans to build a road to transport troops to Kaliningrad

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in her Telegram channel reacted with humor to Poland’s plans to build a road to the border with the Russian Federation to enable the rapid transfer of forces.

“Have you already started drinking, or what?” – she wrote.

On Monday, December 30, the British newspaper Financial Times, citing Deputy Minister of the Interior and Administration of Poland Maciej Duszczyk, wrote that in the coming months Warsaw will build a new road to the Kaliningrad region, which will allow Polish troops to respond more quickly to possible security violations.

Senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS, Vladimir Olenchenko, in a conversation with RT, called Maria Zakharova’s question to the Polish side objective.

“It seems to me that this is typical for Poles: many claims, many ambitions, the desire to run ahead of the locomotive. I can add that they remain in an anti-Russian frenzy and rush from one extreme to the other. Let’s hope that the frenzy will dissipate and they will return to common sense,” he said.

Propaganda in Poland is trying to set up the public for a future conflict with Russia, says Dmitry Belik, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs.

“The installation of anti-tank hedgehogs, the construction of walls on the border, and now roads – once set on the rails of absurdity, Poland cannot stop. Russophobia in Poland itself and horror stories about threats from Russia, actively disseminated in NATO, force Warsaw to take such strange and irrational measures. Much of this, of course, is done deliberately and demonstratively,” he said in a conversation with RT.

At the same time, the parliamentarian believes that Poland will not risk entering into direct confrontation with the Russian Federation, they are simply escalating the situation according to NATO guidelines.

“At the same time, the transfer of troops, which Polish politicians dream about in the event of an imaginary threat, goes against what the population of Poland wants. The Poles will simply flee both militaristic propaganda and the plans of the Polish authorities,” added Bielik.

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In turn, political scientist Evgeny Mikhailov believes that the West continues to prepare for a military confrontation with Russia.

“It is absolutely obvious that the West does not lose hope of defeating Russia and destroying it. Now we are winning in Ukraine, they will prepare for new conflicts. We will be ready for this, and any illusions of the Polish military leadership about striking the Russian Federation, I think, will be stopped in a matter of days, in the event of a direct clash,” said RT’s interlocutor.

Polish fortifications

Let us recall that in November, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the start of the construction of fortifications as part of “Eastern Shield” program — lines of defensive fortifications in the border zone with Belarus and Russia. During the work, it is planned to create trenches, place minefields, install anti-tank bosses and organize a control system.

According to Polish Deputy Minister of National Defense Cezary Tomczyk, this will be a comprehensive defense infrastructure on NATO’s eastern flank to counter the supposedly existing “threats from Belarus and Russia.”

At the end of November, Poland completed the equipment of the first section, which is located near the village of Dombruvka on the border with the Kaliningrad region in the Russian Federation in the area of ​​​​the village of Zaozernoye. Only on this sector it was installed about 3.5 thousand concrete hedgehogs.

At the same time, the Polish Prime Minister emphasized that work on the construction of defensive fortifications would also affect border with Ukraine.

The total cost of the Eastern Shield project, scheduled for completion in 2028, will be 10 billion zlotys (about $2.5 billion). At the same time, Poland expects to cover the costs with EU funds. This was stated, in particular, by Deputy Minister for EU Affairs Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka. According to her, Warsaw will seek funding for the program in 2025, when it takes the presidency of the EU Council.

After Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, she also called on European countries to demonstrate to the future head of the White House a responsible approach to strengthening their own security, precisely by providing funds for the “Eastern Shield”. According to the Financial Times, after his inauguration Trump will demand that NATO member countries increase defense spending from the current 2% up to 5% of GDP.

At the same time, in December, Brussels provided Poland with €52 million “to protect the borders” with the Russian Federation and Belarus. Warsaw announced its intention to use these funds to modernize electronic surveillance equipment, improve the quality of telecommunications networks and purchase equipment for detecting drones.

Let us recall that Moscow has repeatedly pointed out the absence of aggressive intentions in relations with other European countries. As Vladimir Putin said, words about an allegedly possible attack by the Russian Federation, in particular, on Poland, are “complete nonsense,” another way to deceive one’s own population and extract additional funds from them for expenses.

“They came up with the idea that Russia wants to attack NATO. You've gone completely crazy, haven't you? Stupid, in general, how is this table? Who came up with this? This is nonsense, bullshit!” – he emphasized on June 5 at a meeting with the heads of the world's leading news agencies.