Poland denies seeking US military help against Russia

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorsky has not called on Washington to place US troops in Poland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims. Further, it is demanding a retraction of earlier news reports by Russian media.

The Thursday reports said during his visit to Washington, Sikorsky was allegedly asking for a US military presence on Poland’s soil as a protection from Russia’s “possible” aggression.

“Our wish is to have American troops stationed in our country as a shield against Russian aggression,” the minister said, as reported by the Interfax news agency.

Piotr Pashkovski, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, said the media attributed to the Minister words he had never said, Ria Novosti news agency reports.

Pashkovski said Warsaw demands an immediate retraction of this report which, as he said, resulted in far-reaching official reactions from Russia.

Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said he was surprised by his counterpart’s words and would seek confirmation as to whether Sikorski actually made the request for American troops. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrey Nesterenko later said that placing US troops in Poland would contradict Warsaw’s earlier declared readiness to build constructive relationships with Moscow.