Polish PM Donald Tusk warns of global conflict as Russia escalates with hypersonic missile attack

After Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at a Ukrainian city, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday said that recent events show that there is a real risk of a global conflict breaking out.

“The war in the east is entering a decisive phase, we feel that the unknown is approaching,” Reuters quoted Tusk as saying at a teachers conference.

“The conflict is taking on dramatic proportions. The last few dozen hours have shown that the threat is serious and real when it comes to global conflict,” added Tusk.

Poland, which shares borders with Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, has been a prominent advocate for increased NATO defence spending. The country plans to allocate 4.7% of its GDP to strengthen its military by 2025.

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In response to Russia’s comments on Thursday, which warned that a new US ballistic missile defence base in northern Poland would heighten nuclear risks, Warsaw countered by stating that Moscow’s threats only reinforced the need for stronger NATO defences.

Tusk’s comments came after Kremlin on Friday said that a strike on Ukraine using a newly developed hypersonic ballistic missile was a message to the West that Moscow will respond harshly to any “reckless” Western actions in support of Ukraine.

“The main message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries that produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine, and subsequently participate in strikes on Russian territory cannot remain without a reaction from the Russian side,” Reuters quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters.

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On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Moscow had fired the new missile - the Oreshnik or Hazel Tree - at a Ukrainian military facility in response to Kyiv striking Russia with US-made and British-made missiles this week for the first time after the US granted its approval.

“The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns are not taken into account have been quite clearly outlined,” he said.

Moscow has said it regards Ukraine’s firing of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles into Russia as proof of direct US and British involvement in the war.

It said satellite targeting data and the actual programming of the missiles’ flight paths must be done by NATO military personnel because Kyiv does not have the capabilities itself.

Putin said Moscow had struck a missile and defence enterprise in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where missile and space rocket company Pivdenmash, known as Yuzhmash by Russians, is based.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday that all of the missile’s warheads had hit their targets and hailed what it said was its first successful use of an intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile with conventional warheads in combat.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia’s use of the new missile amounts to “a clear and severe escalation” and has called for strong worldwide condemnation.

With inputs from agencies