US ally on Putin’s doorstep braces for war as Russia tensions take ominous turn

Russia’s threat of "consequences" against Britain and a stark warning from a senior Polish defense official are intensifying concerns that Moscow could seek to test NATO directly as the war in Ukraine continues.

Polish Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk said his country is actively preparing for the possibility of conflict, telling Super Express in an interview published Aug.

17 : "We are preparing for war, hoping that it never happens." The Polish Embassy in Washington told Fox News Digital that Warsaw’s accelerated defense preparations are intended to deter potential aggression rather than signal that conflict is inevitable.

RUSSIA PREPARING HYBRID ATTACKS ON NATO'S EASTERN FLANK, INTELLIGENCE WARNS The embassy pointed to Poland’s defense spending of nearly 5% of GDP and invoked the Latin principle Si vis pacem, para bellum — "If you want peace, prepare for war" — saying that, given Russia’s war in Ukraine and what Poland views as Moscow’s imperial ambitions, strengthening deterrence is the country’s only sound strategy.

A European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, backed Tomczyk and said Poland sees a pattern of escalating Russian pressure on multiple fronts.

"We are hurrying to be prepared for war since Russia is giving us and our neighbors constant signals that they want us back as their vassals, their colonial backyard," the diplomat told Fox News Digital.

The diplomat pointed to what they described as Russian disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, sabotage efforts and repeated tests of Poland’s air defenses, as well as increasingly frequent nuclear rhetoric from Russian officials and propagandists.

"Altogether, it shows quite clearly that if Russia or Belarus saw any chance to attack Poland to destroy an obstacle to restoring the Soviet or Tsarist Russian empire in Eastern Europe, they would do it without hesitation," the diplomat said.

The diplomat added that Tomczyk therefore had "quite solid bases to state his prediction," while stressing that the concern was not rooted in hostility toward ordinary Russians.

"We want to have Russia as a good neighbor, business partner.

We would like to host their tourists.

We want to have a cultural exchange with them," the diplomat said.

"But they — at least the imperialists who are the foundation of the Putin administration — would like to turn Poland, the Baltics and, of course, Ukraine back into their colonial part of Europe." UKRAINE POUNDS BLACK SEA FLEET’S ‘LAST MAJOR STRONGHOLD’ WHILE PUTIN FLEXES NAVAL POWER IN PACIFIC Retired Air Force Gen.

Philip Breedlove, who commanded U.S.