If Poland Hosts US Nukes, Russia Will Station Nuclear Weapons Along Western Border: Kremlin

As fully expected, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday blasted Poland’s offer to the United States of its ‘readiness’ to host nuclear weapons for NATO. The recent words of Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Jaroslaw Kaczynski were widely reported this weekend.He  told Germany’s Welt Am Sonntag newspaper: “If the Americans asked us to store American nuclear weapons in Poland, we would be open to it.”

“If the US were to ask us to host nuclear weapons in Poland, we would be open to this option. Such a step would enhance deterrence against Moscow,” he had said.

In fresh reaction, Peskov described that this would constitute a “serious threat” to Russia’s security. He described in the comments to French TV channel LCI on Wednesday that it would force the Kremlin to ensure its nuclear readiness is sufficient to repel the potential deployment of US nukes so close to Russia’s border.

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Peskov additionally ensured it would be “inevitable” for Russia to respond in kind by sending its nuclear arms to its western borders. This would without doubt trigger a new Cold War nuclear arms standoff akin to the Cuban missile crisis. 

The Kremlin official had in prior statements underscored that Warsaw has gone full-on Russophobic in following the Washington line: “In general, the stance of the Polish leadership has recently caused deep concern: the line is extremely war-like, anti-Russian, and the proposed actions [to host nuclear weapons], of course, will only exacerbate tensions on the continent,” Peskov said.

Taking note of these recent Polish discussions to host Western nukes, the international nuclear weapons watchdog group Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists issued the following statement…

“Perhaps one lesson from the war in Ukraine is that an invasion takes time, so there is no need to forward position theater nuclear weapons, for example as recently proposed by Poland.” They group expressed hope that the war will soon come to peaceful resolution, without build-up of nuclear arms on either side of the NATO-Russia standoff.

“Furthermore, forward positioning creates a use-them or lose-them pressure that makes it more likely that the nuclear threshold will be crossed early in a war,” the watchdog warned.