Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister says Russia may launch a “false flag operation” to justify an attack on NATO territory.

Gdánsk, Poland – Polish Deputy Prime Minister Radek Sikorski told CBS News in an interview that he would not rule out Russia conducting “false flag operations” over the next two years to justify an attack on a NATO member state.

“I’m not going to rule out the Russians doing some kind of false flag abuse on Russian territory to have an excuse to attack one of the NATO countries,” Sikorski said. “We need to communicate [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that we know what he is doing and that we will not be taken and that this is completely unacceptable, and we will defend the entire territory of NATO. “

Sikorski said he believed Successful resistance of Ukraine – which analysts say has even started to change the nature of the war in favor of Kyiv this year – so far it has deprived Russia of the resources it would need to launch a successful attack on NATO’s eastern flank.

“Ukraine has certainly won in the Black Sea. Russia certainly does not have air dominance over Ukraine. It can send missiles and drones, but it cannot fly freely over Ukraine. The ground war is stuck, and Ukraine seems to have gained fire control over the main strategic road from Donbas to Crimea,” he said. “Battles are never the same. They go in phases. But it seems like Russia’s phase of initiative is over.”

Ukrainian forces have retaken more than 230 square miles this year, according to a Ukrainian general, and attacks on energy infrastructure forced Russian authorities to cut off gas sales last week to people in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula controlled by Russia since 2014.

Poland continues to play an important role in the defense of Ukraine. Estimates suggest 90% of foreign military equipment for Kyiv to move to the Polish-Ukraine border. But relations between the two nations have recently soured over Ukraine’s decision to rename a military unit to honor Ukrainian World War II-era soldiers remembered in Kyiv for fighting the Soviet Union — but in Poland for the ethnic cleansing of Polish citizens. Volhynia Massacre in 1943.

Sikorski said that neighboring countries must move past this conflict to focus on their common enemy in Moscow.

“It’s not that people fall into each other’s hands. It’s about deciding not to repeat bad things and find a common future. And in that spirit I hope we will be able to manage relations with Ukraine,” said Sikorski. “We must not allow Putin to take advantage of our differences.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters this week that Moscow is “ready to talk to Kyiv, as we have always been.”

Sikorski said any future talks should be held directly between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin, without third parties mediating.

“I personally am of the opinion that it is better to allow Russia and Ukraine to negotiate directly. They are negotiating. exchange of the bodies of fallen soldiers, POWs. And there are issues that we don’t want to force them to do,” he said.

The last time Russian and Ukrainian representatives met face-to-face was in February in the United Arab Emirates during joint conferences hosted by the United States.

“We Europeans do not take sides between these two sides. We are on the side of those who are being tortured. And Russia is the one attacking,” Sikorski told CBS News on Thursday.

“The United States also helps, not like before, but it also helps Ukraine,” he said. “We think that if Putin is ready for a ceasefire, offered by Ukraine, or a peace agreement, he will get Zelensky’s number.”