Europe in a ‘pre-war era’ Polish PM warns
Allies need to bolster their defences, Tusk admits as Putin launches wave of missiles
DONALD Tusk has warned Europe is now in a “pre-war era” and if Ukraine is defeated, no one on the continent will feel safe.
The Polish Prime Minister voiced his fears as Nato fighter jets were scrambled in response to massive Kremlin aerial attacks close to his country’s border with Ukraine.
Mr Tusk said: “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past. It’s real and it started over two years ago.”
Barbaric
The former president of the European Council said tyrant Vladimir Putin had already blamed Ukraine for the jihadist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall without any evidence and “feels the need to justify increasingly violent attacks on civil targets in Ukraine”.
He also said Russian president Putin’s forces had attacked Kyiv with hypersonic missiles in daylight for the first time earlier this week.
And Mr Tusk, who returned as prime minister at the end of last year, appealed to Europe’s leaders to do more to bolster the continent’s defences.
Kyiv said it destroyed 58 Russian attack drones overnight aimed at western and central Ukraine as well as 26 cruise missiles. But three thermal plants of power firm Dtek were hit, with equipment “severely damaged”. A Dtek spokesman added: “After the attack ended, the power engineers promptly started to repair the damage.”
Power grid operator Ukrenergo also said that both thermal and hydropower plants had been badly damaged with emergency shutdowns in the country’s south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
Poland confirmed that the attack, involving some 99 missiles and kamikaze drones, had prompted the unusual step of Polish and allied aircraft being scrambled in the area bordering Ukraine.
Britain’s ambassador to Ukraine,
Martin Harris, said: “Russia is stepping up its vile attacks on Ukraine’s cities and citizens this Easter. My Good Friday began in the bunker.” US ambassador Bridget A Brink pleaded for America’s stalled assistance to Kyiv to be green-lighted.
She said: “Russia’s barbaric effort to take the power out for millions continues unchecked. Our assistance is needed now.”
The strikes came amid tensions over a Russian missile which overflew Polish territory for 39 seconds before hitting a target in Ukraine. Russian ambassador Sergey Andreyev was summoned to the Polish foreign ministry but left Warsaw for Moscow, claiming a lack of proof. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he had not been expelled. He said: “When we decide to respond, it will not be at the level of the ambassador.” Russia is now recruiting more soldiers as it continues its offensive in the Donetsk area.