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Poland’s borderland on fire

Russian hybrid attacks are meant to increasingly disrupt our everyday reality. When positioned together, these incidents form a troubling pattern: disinformation campaigns, foreign intelligence groups, acts of sabotage, explosives discovered in cemeteries or mailed in envelopes – all contributing to a general state of anxiety and heightened alert. Strengthening preparedness to meet security challenges is one of the most reliable ways to mitigate such concerns.

December 8, 2025 - Jan Farfał - AnalysisIssue 6 2025Magazine

Antonio Costa, European Council President and Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy attend a side discussion during the European Political Community Summit at in Copenhagen. The summit in early October revealed that achieving political consensus on the financing European defence can be just as challenging as addressing practical constraints. Photo courtesy of the European Commission

In less than 48 hours, the Polish frontier became subjected to an unprecedented drone attack and a complete border closure with Belarus. These two critical moments were not isolated events. They were a continuation of a hybrid conflict that has been ongoing since August 2021, when Minsk first began orchestrating illegal border crossings. These acts form a broader pattern that reflects the evolving nature of confrontation – the weaponization of everything from migration and trade to technology, all meant to increasingly disrupt the Polish reality and to set our borderland on fire.

“Neither war nor peace,” Leon Trotsky famously remarked. Nearly 100 years later, this quip is more relevant than ever. Just recently, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, stated “we are not at war, but we are no longer at peace either.” The ongoing confrontation with Russia necessitates a new rationale of action. We need to come up with new ways of reacting to Russian provocations, rethink our escalation ladder, ensure continuous European support, mitigate the economic fallout of hybrid attacks, and search for new means to enhance our deterrence potential.

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