Poland proposes Ukraine buy weapons from it on credit

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland has proposed that Ukraine buy weapons from it on credit and then pay the costs back after the war, foreign minister Radosław Sikorski has revealed. His remarks came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to criticise Poland for not providing Kyiv enough military support.

Speaking to broadcaster Polsat, Sikorski said that “our government made a new proposal, a defence loan”, to Kyiv. “It could have been done from the start, [saying] ‘go ahead, buy from Polish factories on credit, and when you rebuild, you will pay it back’.”

The Polish foreign minister’s remarks came a day after Zelensky singled out Poland for apparent criticism over its alleged failure to provide promised MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Zelensky said that an agreement had been reached for NATO to provide “air policing” in Poland, as it does in the Baltic states, to protect the country if it donated its MiGs to Ukraine.

“We agreed on this, but after that, did Poland give us the planes? No,” said the Ukrainian president, quoted by The Kyiv Independent. He then suggested Warsaw had found “another reason” not to transfer the fighter jets, without providing further details.

Zelensky also said that Ukraine is “constantly asking them [Poland] to shoot down [Russian] missiles”, for example those that threaten a gas storage facility in Stryi near the Polish border.

“We have good relations with Poland, Polish people support us…[But] did the Poles shoot down the missiles? No,” said Zelensky, quoted by Euractiv.

The Ukrainian president’s remarks met with a sharp response from Poland. Speaking to broadcaster Polsat, Sikorski noted that Poland has given Ukraine “more tanks than the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom combined”.

He added that he “hopes that Ukraine understands that Poland is a frontline country and we also have to deter Putin…We have the right to defend our skies”.

“President Zelensky should direct his requests to those countries that are further from Ukraine, further from Russia, further from the frontline, because they can afford to give Ukraine more,” said Sikorski. However, he also urged understanding for Zelensky, “who does not have it easy”.

Meanwhile, defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz tweeted that “Poland has given as much military equipment to Ukraine as possible – however, the limit is Poland’s defence capabilities and security”.

Regarding the idea of Poland shooting down Russian missiles over Ukraine, Kosiniak-Kamysz noted that the decision must be made by NATO collectively, and so far no such decision has been made.

In July, Poland proposed that it be allowed to shoot down Russian missiles that are in Ukrainian airspace but heading towards Polish territory. However, NATO’s then secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, rejected the idea, saying it would risk NATO “becoming part of the conflict”.

In the months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland was among the leading donors of military equipment and other forms of aid to Kyiv. That included transferring over 300 tanks to its eastern neighbour.

However, while Warsaw has continued to support Ukraine diplomatically – calling for greater international aid for Kyiv and tougher sanctions on Moscow – it has argued that its own capacity to make further donations of equipment is now limited.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Combat Camera Poland/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)