Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki warned on Sunday that Russia will remain a persistent threat to Central and Eastern Europe regardless of any future political changes in Moscow, saying the region’s long-standing concerns about Russian ambitions have been vindicated by recent history.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Vilnius alongside Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Nawrocki said that shifts in Russia’s internal political system would not alter what he described as a consistent pattern of imperial behavior.
“Policies backing a ‘reset’ with the Russian Federation are disappearing, but one thing remains unchanged: whether it’s Tsarist Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia, our countries, now independent, still face the same threat from the Russian Federation,” Nawrocki said.
He added that Central and Eastern European states had long warned their Western partners about the dangers posed by Moscow, warnings that were often dismissed. “The countries of central and eastern Europe were not wrong in their opinions about the Russian threat, even at a time when western Europe was still focused on climate policy or letting in illegal immigrants,” Nawrocki said, according to broadcaster TVP World.
The leaders gathered in the Lithuanian capital to mark the anniversary of the 1863 January Uprising against Russian rule, a failed revolt that sought to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and was crushed by Tsarist forces the following year. Nawrocki described the uprising as a moral victory that preserved national identity and demonstrated that “surrender is not an option.”
He said the historical lesson remained relevant today “in a world in which imperial aggression is once again reviving,” a clear reference to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
Nawrocki also highlighted deepening regional defence cooperation, praising Lithuania’s plans to raise military spending to an estimated 5.4 percent of gross domestic product, surpassing Poland’s own defence outlays. Poland currently allocates close to 5 percent of its GDP to defence and fields more than 200,000 soldiers, which Nawrocki described as the most powerful army in the region.
He further noted that Polish forces would be able to train at a new Lithuanian military training area near the Suwalki Gap, a narrow stretch of land between Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and Belarus that NATO views as a potential flashpoint in any future conflict with Russia.
The meeting underscored growing coordination among Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine as they seek to strengthen regional security in the face of continued Russian aggression.
