Poland has not yet built a single Patriot missile factory. Moscow has already sent it a warning. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing in Moscow that arms factories in European countries producing for Ukraine are potential Russian military targets. According to news agency reports, she also called them "legitimate" targets.

"One should not assume that military plants outside Ukraine producing weapons for the Kyiv regime will be safe. Whoever thinks so is deceiving themselves," Zakharova said.

The trigger: an announcement from Warsaw

Zakharova was answering a question about Poland's readiness to start producing interceptor missiles for the Patriot system, intended for Ukraine. In her view, opening factories and joint ventures means European states are directly involved in the conflict. Moscow also claims this only drags out its resolution - a statement that comes as Kyiv was waking up under thick smog after some of the largest combined Russian air attacks in recent months.

In recent weeks Warsaw has said several times that it is ready. At the end of August Deputy Defence Minister Paweł Zalewski said Poland has the capacity and the will to produce PAC-3 missiles on its own territory, that it is also open to joint production with Ukraine, and that it is discussing the project with Lockheed Martin and the US administration. Last week Deputy Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka added that the factory could spring up in Poland, especially if Ukraine gets a US licence, and at a safer location - most likely in the west of the country.

Western Poland means as far from the front as possible. Moscow's answer: far away does not mean safe.

Licences, servicing and business

According to reports, US President Donald Trump announced back in early July, at the NATO summit, that Ukraine would get a licence to produce Patriots. Zelensky discussed the licences with Trump in New York. Ukraine needs interceptors urgently, deliveries are slow, so until winter it will have to rely on missiles from partners' existing stockpiles.

Warsaw, meanwhile, is not just waiting for Ukraine's licence. It has also applied for a Patriot service centre and, in the longer term, for its own missile production, unconnected to Ukraine. Talks with Washington are continuing. For Poland this is security, industry and business all at once. For Moscow - a handy pretext for a message to all of Europe.

The "legitimate target" logic is dangerous precisely because it has no natural limit. Today it is a factory in Poland, tomorrow any plant producing anything for any front. The Balkans have their own ammunition and explosives factories, and remember even better what it means when great powers decide who is a target and who is collateral damage. Is anyone in the region reading briefings like this carefully?

The factory is still on paper, and Moscow has already sent it its address.