The hybrid attack orchestrated by Belarus and Russia mainly impacts Poland’s eastern border, but recently the effects have been felt across the entire country. This unprecedented situation requires the state administration to remain on high alert and ready to coordinate the official response.

“The current circumstances require full focus from all of us, including voivodes and local officials. We also need to draw upon our collective experience,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the start of the meeting.

The war in Ukraine, as well as the aggressive policies pursued by Belarus and Russia, gave rise to a credible threat to Poland - a threat that concerns not just disinformation and cyberattacks, but also acts of sabotage and diversion. This means that voivodes need to take action.

“Being a voivode means something different these days than it did a couple of years ago. Your mission and your service is about much more than just administration and keeping things running - you need to be ready to respond to crises and emergencies,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “You need to be ready to work hard in the interest of state security in the broadest sense of the word,” he explained.

During the briefing, voivodes shared their situation reports and outlined key issues concerning their regions.

The threats coming from beyond Poland’s eastern border mean that state authorities should work with each other at all levels.

“There should be no other priorities today - neither for the central government, nor for the regional and local authorities - than security in the broadest sense of the word,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

He also added that the gravity of the situation is apparent following the arrests of 10 individuals directly involved in acts of sabotage and diversion over the course of the past several weeks.

“We have reasons to believe that these incidents are not isolated and we have not seen the last of them. This should make you realise the importance of your mission as representatives of the central government,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “We need to establish synergy,” he added.

The Prime Minister pointed out that ensuring security requires collaboration of voivodes with all uniformed services, but that is not going to be enough without coordinating measures at European level.

“In near future, we are going to elect the leaders of the European Union. I will insist that Poland needs to have a say in security, energy security and our immediate vicinity. We are going to focus on building up Poland's influence in these areas,” Donald Tusk announced.

Security at the European level needs to be coordinated with the measures undertaken by the government, the judiciary, law enforcement and government administration, as well as uniformed services.

Before his meeting with the governors, Prime Minister Donald Tusk received a report from the Białystok branch of the Internal Security Agency.

“The report of the head of the ISA branch that I received today was met with great satisfaction - I read that the cooperation between the services and the government administration is exemplary, flexible and agile,” the Prime Minister noted. “This is exactly what we need right now. That is to say, everyone needs to be alert and ready to work with each other - it does not matter whether they represent civilian services or the military,” he added.

The Chief of Police, Commander-in-Chief of the Border Guard and the head of the ABW delegation in Białystok also attended the meeting.