‘Don’t Even Think About It’: Ex-Danish FM Warns Russia Amid NATO Drills

Nordic countries are “ready to respond” should Russia provoke NATO, former Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod told TVP World, as long-planned NATO military exercises got underway near Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. “We have to be resilient. We have to rehearse our military forces,” Kofod said on TVP World’s World News Tonight program. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The exercises in Poland, he said, show Moscow that “if they provoke us, we are ready to respond.” “So, they shouldn’t even think about that idea,” he added, saying the participation of US forces also demonstrated that Washington “is still very present in Europe, and that is good for our security.” The exercises opened with a flyby of US jets around Kaliningrad, a strategically sensitive area wedged between Poland and Lithuania. But while Kofod praised “exponential” military build-up in the Nordic countries in recent years, he warned they had to keep the initiative. More work to do “I think we have to build up much faster than we have done before,” he said, calling for NATO countries to reach 5% of GDP in defense spending “the sooner the better.” Kofod also highlighted the urgent need for stronger air defenses, pointing to Russia’s deadly attack on Kyiv on Thursday, which killed at least 16 people. Other Topics of Interest Russia Unleashes 135 Drones on Ukraine, Killing 2 in Kharkiv Region and Injuring 6 in Sumy Russia sent 135 drones over Ukraine overnight, with strikes damaging homes in Sumy and killing two women in Kharkiv region. He said Nordic leaders, who gathered on Thursday in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, were discussing “common air defense as one of the solutions,” arguing that closer cooperation could pool national capabilities. “Each country has military assets,” he said. “Poland has a lot of military assets, and if you bring them together, then Russia will have no chance.” The former minister also called for greater protection of critical infrastructure, including electricity grids, pipelines and oil facilities, as Russia continues what he described as hybrid warfare. He said Europe must also increase its own ability to defend itself while continuing to support Ukraine, particularly with air defense systems, warning that Russia could intensify attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure ahead of winter. TVP World is Poland's first English-language channel where you can find our guest interviews, world news from the Polish perspective and the latest news from the CEE region.