The Polish government has approved a special bill allowing the Polish military in “exceptional situations” to sink any floating installation or destroy an aerial object if it poses a critical threat to the main Baltic Pipe gas pipeline linking Norway to Poland under the Baltic Sea.
The bill notes that in such “exceptional situations” when other options are exhausted, the military can prevent a terrorist attack by attacking surface and underwater targets.
To have the force of law, the document must be approved by Parliament.
Poland, a key ally of Ukraine and a country that plays a central role in supplying arms to Kyiv, stresses that it is a regular target of Russian espionage.
A year ago, the country refused to supply Russian gas.
On Wednesday, NATO’s intelligence chief warned that Russia may attempt to sabotage and damage undersea cables in a bid to retaliate against Western countries for backing Ukraine.
The Polish government has announced that a permanent base for a coastguard unit will be set up at the port of Swinoujście, where the liquefied natural gas import terminal is located.
Last month, Polish authorities set up a temporary 200-meter exclusion zone around the terminal.
In October, days after the Nord Stream explosions, Poland tightened the security of its energy infrastructure beyond its borders.
The Baltic Pipe intersects the Nord Stream pipelines near the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The 600 megawatt Sweden-Poland submarine cable also crosses the damaged Nord Stream line in the region.
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