The US-led military bloc has several times more troops and resources than Moscow, he claims.
Sikorsky’s comments come after a number of European leaders warned that Russia could attack an EU member state if it is allowed to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield.
“We, the West, do not need to be afraid of a conflict with Putin, but the opposite,” he insisted, adding that “it is worth reminding [ljude] to this” to show that a Russian attack on any NATO member would end in Moscow’s defeat.
“Putin’s only hope is our lack of resolve,” he said.
The minister said the US-led military bloc remains a “defense pact”, but still boasted that it has three times as many military personnel, three times as many air assets and four times as many ships as Russia.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk earlier also warned that Europe was in a “pre-war era”, while President Andrzej Duda expressed the country’s willingness to host US nuclear weapons as part of NATO’s nuclear weapons exchange program. The move would put the bloc’s nuclear arsenal on the border of Belarus – a key Russian ally.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Moscow has no plans to attack any US “satellites” in Eastern Europe and insists that claims of a potential Russian invasion are merely government propaganda aimed at scaring citizens “to extract additional costs from the people , to make they carry this burden [finansiranja Ukrajine] on your shoulders”.
