Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned that Moscow would view the transfer of nuclear weapons to Poland as highly provocative, after a top official said Warsaw is willing to host foreign missiles as a deterrent.
Speaking with French broadcaster LCI for an interview on Wednesday, Peskov said any such deployment would likely trigger a response in kind from Russia, suggesting it would alter its own nuclear posture.
“For us, this would be a big threat,” he said, adding “In this case, the deployment of Russian nuclear missiles on the western border would be inevitable,” also stressing that Moscow is “a responsible nuclear power.”
Peskov’s comments come after Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski told a German newspaper last weekend that his country “would be open” to hosting US nuclear weapons, arguing that a missile deployment on NATO’s eastern flank “makes sense” and would “significantly increase deterrence towards Moscow.”