Provocations possible during Nato summit says security official

Russia could carry out provocative operations from the air or by using migrants to increase tensions on the border during the Nato summit in Vilnius later this week, a senior a senior Polish security official said on Monday.

Stanislaw Zaryn, commissioner for information-space security, said in an interview for private broadcaster Polsat News, that "Russia wants to discredit this summit, to show that Nato is divided."

The Vilnius Nato Summit, which will take place on July 11 and 12, will be dominated by the Russian war on Ukraine, and member states are expected to a adopt new regional defence plans, including a defence manufacturing road map.

Russia, Zaryn said, is threatening Poland, and peddling fears about nuclear attacks as part of a policy designed to divide the Western world.

"The intensification of Russian propaganda indicates that Russia is continuing these actions to intimidate the West, to make it unwilling to take decisive steps during the Vilnius summit," Zaryn said.

He added that "we can expect provocations, whether using the migration route or from the air."

"We must counteract this to show that we are united, and are determined to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia," Zaryn said.

During the summer of 2021, thousands of migrants tried to cross into Poland from Belarus. The Polish government has said that they were part of a campaign orchestrated by the Belarusian government to destabilise Poland and the EU.

The summit will also be attended by the leaders of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and the European Union.