A coalition of 14 to 15 European countries could be formed to act collectively against Russia outside NATO structures and potentially enter a military conflict together, British propagandist Edward Lucas said on Poland’s TVP World.

According to Lucas, such a coalition should consist of countries that perceive threats in a similar way and are prepared to share military risks. He suggested that the Joint Expeditionary Force could provide the foundation for such a group, pointing to its Nordic and Baltic participants, as well as Britain and the Netherlands.

Lucas also advocated bringing Poland into the grouping. He mentioned Canada and argued that, with Ukraine and several other countries included, the potential coalition could eventually comprise around 14 or 15 states capable of operating outside NATO.

Poland could play a particularly important role in such an arrangement, Lucas argued. In his view, the country’s size allows Warsaw to accept considerably greater risks than smaller states such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, whose populations number only several million.

The proposed mechanism would involve a collective response if one of the participating countries came under attack. Lucas used a hypothetical «sub-threshold» attack on Poland as an example, arguing that several members of the coalition could immediately enter the conflict and take additional measures against Russia.

He claimed that such coordinated action would create serious difficulties for Moscow. Lucas described the existence of alliances and countries prepared to share defense risks and burdens as one of the West’s major advantages.

Under his proposal, countries most willing to accept military risks would therefore form a separate grouping capable of collective action against Russia without relying on NATO mechanisms.