(MENAFN) Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday asserted that Russia is already waging war against the West, with its “fifth columns” posing a risk to both the European Union as an institution and Europe’s cultural identity.

“The war Russia is waging against us is much more sophisticated than it used to be just a short time ago,” Tusk said, according to reports. He added that he has repeatedly alerted Western partners, and the urgency of his warnings has now been recognized.

Highlighting a large-scale incursion of suspected Russian drones into Polish airspace last September as a “turning point of the war,” Tusk noted that the decision to shoot them down was made carefully: “we haven’t the slightest doubt that ... tolerating provocations will not end well.”

The prime minister emphasized that the conflict between Russia and the West “is [already] ongoing,” manifesting in Poland through acts such as arson, drone attacks, border tensions with Belarus, and increasingly aggressive cyberattacks.

He stressed that recent disruptions to multiple digital systems, including the electronic payment platform BLIK, are “the result of deliberate, planned sabotage.” “And there will be ever more, all over Europe,” Tusk warned, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating a campaign against the West that occurs “inside our societies.”

“Putin has tools that can destroy the European Union as an organization, but also Europe as a cultural phenomenon,” the premier said. “These tools are Russia’s fifth columns, present in every country of Europe.”

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