STORY: Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned on Thursday (September 24) that Russia was planning "something big" this year and may stage a false flag attack to justify military mobilisation.

Speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations panel in New York, Sikorski said intelligence from multiple sources indicated Moscow was preparing a significant operation.

"Russia is cooking up something big this year," Sikorski told the panel, but said Poland did not have any details on what this might be.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week, officials from countries on NATO's eastern flank said Moscow was increasingly using drone incursions, cyberattacks, sabotage and other covert operations to sow fear, test Western resolve and weaken backing for Kyiv.

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'Russia is cooking up something big this year,' says Poland's Sikorski

VIDEO SHOWS: POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER, RADOSLAW SIKORSKI, WARNING RUSSIA IS "COOKING UP" SOMETHING BIG THIS YEAR

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 24, 2026) ( COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS - Must on screen courtesy 'Council on Foreign Relations')

1. POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER, RADOSLAW SIKORSKI, TAKING PART IN PANEL DISCUSSION

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER, RADOSLAW SIKORSKI, SAYING: (INCLUDES MULTIPLE ANGLES)

“We are getting intelligence from multiple sources, that…"

(PANELLIST OFF-CAMERA: “It was NATO, it was the US?”)

“We don't identify sources, but it's multiple, that Russia is cooking up something big this year, and we also think that you have public opinion, even in dictatorships, that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin needs a pretext for mobilisation, and so they might do a false flag attack on themselves in order to say to their people, we are under attack, and therefore we have to mobilise.”

3. WHITE FLASH

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER, RADOSLAW SIKORSKI, SAYING: (INCLUDES MULTIPLE ANGLES)

“Well, the Belarusians are very concerned about being drawn into the war. As you know, they have a Russian majority population in Narva in Estonia. They have Russian majorities in some towns in Latvia. They would love to have a land bridge from Belarus to the Kaliningrad exclave, Lithuania. We don't know what they will do, but we have to prepare to deter it.”

5. PANEL IN PROGRESS