If Germany does not agree to deploy Patriots to Ukraine, Poland will consider accepting them: PM

If Germany rejects Poland’s idea of transferring Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, then the government would consider hosting them on Polish territory – as originally suggested by Berlin – says Prime Minister Morawiecki.

Meanwhile, the secretary general of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Krzysztof Sobolewski, has expressed concern that Germany’s initial offer was only a “PR ploy”.

After a missile crossed the border from Ukraine earlier this month and killed two people in the Polish village of Przewodów, Germany’s defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, said that her government would be willing to bolster Poland’s air defences with German Patriot systems, as well as Eurofighter jets.

Warsaw initially reacted warmly to the proposal, with defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak saying that he “accepted it with satisfaction”. But that position then shifted, with Błaszczak suggesting that the Patriots could instead be positioned in western Ukraine.

Germany responded unenthusiastically to the idea, with Lambrecht saying it would require NATO approval (though NATO’s secretary general subsequently said it was a decision for Berlin to make) and the German ambassador to Poland calling it “unrealistic” and “difficult to understand”.

Asked yesterday if Poland would itself be willing to host the Patriots if Germany refused to hand them over to Ukraine, Morawiecki responded that, “Yes, we are considering such an option of course”.

“But we would like to highlight the fact that no one wants to acquire equipment just for it to stand,” he added, quoted by RMF FM. “Today, people are dying across the Polish border. Today, bombs are falling on Ukraine almost every day.”

The prime minister expressed the hope that “it will be possible to organise the whole process in such a way that indeed the western part of Ukraine will at least have this defence through modern missile defence, air defence systems”.

Moreover, this would be “nothing unusual”, he pointed out, as that NATO countries have already been transferring anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons to Ukraine. Such defences in western Ukraine would also protect the Polish border, he noted.

That message was also given by PiS secretary general Sobolewski yesterday in an interview with Polskie Radio. “For the security of Poland, the Patriots – if they are to be transferred – should be placed on the western border of Ukraine,” he said.

But Sobolowski expressed concern that the offer was actually “a PR ploy by the German defense minister” and said he hoped “they are not withdrawing” from the plan now.

The PiS official noted that Lithuania is still waiting for military reinforcements previously promised by Germany and that Poland itself has not yet received German Leopard tanks – an issue that has been the cause of a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Poland’s largest opposition party, Civic Platform (PO), has accused PiS of playing politics over the country’s security.

“It is obvious that [Germany’s] proposal was addressed to Poland,” PO deputy leader Bartosz Arłukowicz told Onet yesterday. Transferring the Patriots to Ukraine “would have to be decided by the entire NATO” and would be “burdened with many consequences”, he added.

However, Poland’s ambassador to NATO Tomasz Szatkowski, told Polskie Radio that it “is absolutely untrue” that the approval of the entire alliance is needed. “No such arrangements have been made within NATO, unless they had some secret talks between some allies of which I am not aware.”

Main photo credit: Senior Airman Daniel Phelps/US Army Europe (under public domain)

Alicja Ptak

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