Poland doing “more than its part” to help Ukraine, says Finland’s PM

Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, has praised Poland’s response to the war in Ukraine after meeting with her Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki in Helsinki. During the visit Morawiecki also pledged Poland’s support for Finland’s accession to NATO.

“Poland is doing, once again, more than its part,” said Marin. “You are not only giving weapons, helping displaced people from Ukraine and making humanitarian efforts, you are also helping others to help Ukraine…We must do everything we can for Ukraine to triumph.”

Poland has supplied Ukraine with more military equipment than any country other than the US this year, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker published by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

It has also received more refugees from Ukraine than any other country and will this year spend €8.36 billion on supporting them, more than any other member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), according to recent estimates by the organisation.

Finland’s prime minister noted that her talks with Morawiecki yesterday included discussion of Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO, which Poland has strongly supported.

“I would like to thank Poland,” she said. “Poland has been very helpful in this process; it has been characterised by leadership towards others, although some issues remained to be resolved.”

NATO members Hungary and Turkey have so far failed to ratify the instruments of accession that will enable Sweden and Finland to join. Morawiecki was yesterday asked by a journalist whether he intended to discuss the subject with Hungary, an ally of Poland.

“In a few days, Prime Minister [Viktor] Orbán and I will meet under the Visegrad Group format,” said Morawiecki. “I am sure that together with our friends from Slovakia and the Czech Republic we will ask Viktor Orbán to quickly ratify the documents for Sweden and Finland, as this is critical for the eastern flank of our region.”

“Recent days have shown that Europe is more united than ever. For the first time, the shockwave of war has reached the territory of the EU,” he added, referring to an explosion, most probably caused by Ukrainian air defence against a Russian attack, that killed two Poles in the Polish village Przewodów last week.

Referring to Poland’s relations with Finland, Morawiecki noted that “our countries may lie on opposite sides of the Baltic Sea, but we speak with one voice when it comes to geopolitical threats, in particular what is happening in Russia, in Ukraine. Both our countries are frontline states against Russia. This is a challenge that cannot be met alone.”

Following his visit to Helsinki on Sunday, prime minister Morawiecki posted a video with Marin, where they jointly addressed Ukrainians. “We are with you as you defend your country and European values,” said the Finnish prime minister.

“Precisely. You are fighting for your freedom and your sovereignty, but we also feel strongly that you are also fighting for European security and a European future, so you will always have our support. It will not just be words, it will be actions and facts,” Morawiecki added.

Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.