Moscow considers any expansion of NATO’s nuclear-sharing arrangement as “deeply destabilizing” in nature, “and in fact threatening” Russia, Ryabkov was quoted as saying by TASS on Thursday. This applies to joint missions, where non-nuclear members of the US-led bloc are trained to use American hardware, and even more so to the permanent stationing of such weapons “which hotheads in Warsaw are talking about,” he said.

In follow-up, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stipulated that “any nuclear weapons deployed to Poland would be legitimate targets in the event of war with the alliance.” Russian media translations said Moscow would see this as a “priority target”.

All of this was in response to words issued by Polish President Andrzej Duda in a Monday interview. He said his country is “ready” to host nuclear weapons should NATO decide to do so as reinforcement of its eastern flank. It remains that the United States chiefly supplies and oversees NATO’s nuclear-sharing program, thus any possible future nukes in Poland would be supplied by Washington.

“Russia is increasingly militarizing the Königsberg oblast (Kaliningrad). Recently, it has been relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus,” Duda continued, apparently wanting to match and mirror Russian moves. Indeed Belarus is now believed to host possibly dozens of Russian tactical nukes.

“If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons as part of nuclear sharing on our territory as well, in order to strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready for it,” the Polish president had added.

Duda additionally said while discussing the topic of NATO’s nuclear sharing program in the interview that Warsaw and Washington have been in talks “for some time.” He emphasized: “I’ve already talked about it several times. I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness.”

But the reality is Brussels and Washington are likely to be deeply hesitant based on the nuclear threats emanating from Moscow of late. Moving NATO warheads to Polish soil would most certainly greatly intensify the already somewhat high nuclear tensions, and at a moment the proxy war in Ukraine shows no sings of abating.

While three NATO members are officially nuclear weapons states – the United States, France and the United Kingdom – others are authorized to host nukes (typically ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons). They are Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

Apparently Poland is now throwing its name in the hat for NATO’s nuclear-sharing program, which would expand Western nuke placement right up to Russia’s backyard. The Kremlin would no doubt deploy more of its strategic assets near Eastern Europe in such a scenario.

The video clip – which had also been shared by a Latvian news outlet – featured an array of tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs) and military trucks at the northern Polish port of Gdynia. According to the Latvian outlet, the military vehicles belonged to the U.S. Army’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team. The said vehicles were at the port “in preparation for redeployment to the continental U.S.” after serving in Operation Atlantic Resolve” on Feb. 22.

Operation Atlantic Resolve, which has been carried out by Washington since 2014, seeks to bolster American presence in Europe. About 700 combat vehicles, including M1 Abrams tanks – the U.S.’ main battle tank – were deployed to Poland in December 2022.

Neither the White House nor the U.S. Department of Defense has commented on the footage. However, some media outlets from Poland and Ukraine insinuated that these military vehicles could be redeployed – this time in the Ukrainian war zone.

In January of this year, the U.S. said it would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks and eight M88 recovery vehicles to Ukraine. However, it noted that the delivery of these 39 military vehicles would take considerable time. Poland and Germany also pledged to provide a number of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

Since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in February 2022, the U.S. and its allies have been providing Kyiv with various types of military aid. These include air defense missiles, multiple-launch rocket systems, tanks, self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft guns.

Austria, Hungary: NO WEAPONS for Kyiv

While the U.S. continues to send military aid to Kyiv at the expense of its own national security, Austria and Hungary went against the grain and agreed not to send any weapons to Ukraine.

Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner and Hungarian Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky inked the agreement during a Jan. 30 meeting in the Hungarian capital Budapest. The defense ministers reiterated their “clear” position against providing Ukraine with war materiel “to prevent a further escalation.”

“We live in a time of danger,” Szalay-Bobrovniczky remarked. “Continuing that close cooperation is of utter importance.” The Hungarian defense minister added that his country would only supply humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees, reiterating that Budapest and Vienna would be on the side of peace.

Meanwhile, Tanner warned that the greatest danger is the war – which now involves hybrid warfare – could spread to the rest of Europe. “The effects are not only enormously felt in Austria, but also in Hungary. Eventually, the routes run through our neighboring country to us,” the Austrian defense minister said. (Related: Austria, Hungary agree NOT to send any weapons to Ukraine (perhaps they wish to avoid being destroyed by Russia.))

Over in Russia, Moscow has repeatedly warned the West that it is prolonging the Russia-Ukraine war by sending weapons and military vehicles to Kyiv. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that Western countries are directly involved in the war through their continued assistance to Ukraine.

Lavrov’s office, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, underscored that countries part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “play with fire” by supplying weapons to Kyiv. It also emphasized that any convoy of arms for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian forces.

Head over to MilitaryTechnology.news for more stories about military aid to Ukraine.

Watch this video about Ukraine’s European allies scrambling to find tanks for the besieged country.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

• Europol fears that weapons sent to Ukraine will end up in the hands of criminals.
• Ukraine aid scam: Only 30% of weapons shipped to besieged country have made it to the front lines.
• U.S. tells Ukraine it cannot provide strategic missiles because American forces simply don’t have enough.
• Where are the tens of billions being spent in Ukraine really going? Analysis dares to ask the tough questions.
• Outdated weaponry sent by US to Ukraine prone to breaking down quickly and will be difficult to repair, expert fears.

Sources include:

• SputnikNews.com
• News.Yahoo.com
• Brighteon.com
• NATURAL NEWS