Polish society needs resilience amid Russia's hostile campaign, FM says
The Kremlin will test further boundaries in a bid to scare, divide and turn Poles against one another therefore improving resilience of Polish society is extremely important, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said.
Sikorski made the statement in his annual policy speech before parliament on Thursday.
"The Kremlin will not back down," Sikorski said. "It will test further boundaries. In this fight, it is extremely important to build the resilience of our society. That is why, from the youngest to the oldest, the residents of Poland must be armed with knowledge on how to deal with danger on the internet. Awareness of who publishes what and for what purpose, as well as solidarity in counteracting disinformation, is our collective patriotic duty."
According to the foreign minister, Moscow's aim is to scare, divide and turn different groups of Poles against each other and weaken their trust in political authorities.
"The arsenal is well known: networks of bots spreading falsehoods and hatred; the use of artificial intelligence to create false material that imitates reliable information; the use of cryptocurrencies to finance hybrid operations; attacks on critical infrastructure; and finally, useful idiots spreading dangerous lies," Sikorski said.
"The sense of confusion is exacerbated by aggression in the information space and campaigns of fake news and manipulation on the internet," Sikorski said. "The Ministry of Digital Affairs reports that Poland experiences between two and three thousand cyberattacks every day. The vast majority of them are successfully repelled, but the scale of the phenomenon should be cause for concern."
Sikorski went on to accuse Moscow of organising acts of subversion and sabotage across Europe as he recalled incidents of arson in Poland and a foiled terrorist attack on a Polish railway line last November.
He also recalled the most serious security incident caused by Russia so far, when some 20 Russian military decoy drones entered the Polish airspace in September 2025.
"After Russian drones invaded our airspace, a disinformation campaign was launched. In one day, it reached eight million Polish internet users. The perpetrators wanted to shift the blame onto Ukraine and NATO. Unfortunately, they also found an audience here, in this chamber. Similar actions were taken after the explosion on the Warsaw-Lublin railway line in November," the foreign minister said.
President Karol Nawrocki, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as well as lower and upper house speakers, parliamentarians and diplomats were present to hear the foreign minister's annual address. (PAP)
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