Senior Polish officials, including the president, have pledged to send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine amid rising fears of a Russian invasion, Kyiv’s ambassador to Warsaw has claimed. He said that consultations are ongoing as to what supplies are most needed and when they will be delivered.
“Such a declaration was made at the level of the president, the head of the National Security Bureau [BBN] and the Ministry of Defence,” said ambassador Andrii Deshchytsia in an interview with RMF FM on Tuesday.
“We want an open war to be avoided and that is why we are negotiating and talking to our partners,” said Deshchytsiam, who added that Ukraine was “ready for any scenario”.
"Everyone from Poland on has reason to be concerned about what would happen" in Ukraine, says Joe Biden.
"If [Putin] were to move into Ukraine…I’d feel obliged to beef up our presence — NATO’s presence — on the eastern front: Poland, Romania, etc"https://t.co/06IEkZXpKJ
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 26, 2022
Earlier, in an interview with Dziennik Gazeta Prawna on Monday, the head of the BBN, Paweł Soloch, had revealed that Poland is “analysing and holding talks” about proving Ukraine with weapons. He said that the defence ministry was taking the lead.
In his remarks yesterday, Deshchytsia also confirmed that the topic has been discussed by the two countries’ presidents, Andrzej Duda and Volodymyr Zelensky, when they met in Poland last week.
A number of other countries – including the UK, US and the Baltic states – have already sent military equipment to Ukraine amid rising tensions with Russia, which has amassed over 100,000 troops near the border.
The heads of Poland’s Roman Catholic church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church have jointly appealed for leaders to "refrain from hostilities" as "war is always a defeat for mankind".
They also accuse Russia of "disregarding international law" https://t.co/oQqioFAVrH
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 24, 2022
Earlier this week, President Duda announced that a meeting of Poland’s National Security Council would be held on Friday to discuss the situation. But Duda – who on Monday held talks with US counterpart Joe Biden and other European leaders – stressed that Poland itself was not in immediate danger.
Meanwhile, a United Surveys poll published this week found that 66% of people in Poland believe their country should help Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion. Just under 27% disagreed with helping and 7% did not state an opinion.
Sending arms was advocated by 41% of respondents and was the second most popular means of help, after diplomatic efforts (42%) and ahead of economic support (39%). Only 14.7% of respondents favoured sending Polish troops.
Main image credit: NATO/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
