Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski has hit out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after he accused Poland of dragging its feet in supplying arms to Kiev.
In response, Sikorski said on November 1 that the Polish Government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk had introduced a “defence credit facility” to enable Ukraine to buy arms from his country.
“This could have been done from the very beginning; you’re welcome to buy arms using the credit facility and you’ll pay back when you rebuild after the war,” he said on commercial TV channel Polsat News.
On October 31, Ukraine’s President had accused Poland of holding back on supplying his country with MiG-29 fighter jets.
“They have found yet another excuse,” he said after Poland’s ambassador to Ukraine, Piotr Łukaszewicz, had on October 24 announced that Warsaw would supply more MIG-29 planes as soon as it could “fill the gaps” in its own defences that would result from giving planes that are still in service to Ukraine.
Zelensky disputed the ambassador’s explanation, claiming Poland had been given assurances by NATO that it would defend Polish airspace if the MIG-29s were transferred to Ukraine. He also claimed that Poland was not prepared to shoot down Russian missiles near the Ukrainian-Polish border.
In July, Poland had suggested it be allowed to neutralise Russian missiles in Ukrainian airspace but heading towards Polish territory. That idea was criticised by the right-wing Confederation party for potentially putting Poland at risk of a Russian attack.
NATO’s then-secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg rejected any such move saying it would risk NATO “becoming part of the conflict”.
Regarding Zelensky, Sikorski said that “we have our own defence needs” and must “keep this war as far away from our borders as is possible”.
The foreign minister also said that, given the scale of its own GDP and all the military, financial, humanitarian and refugee assistance his country provided, Poland ranked top of the list among countries helping Ukraine in the war with Russia.
“We feel rightly proud of the solidarity we have shown with Ukraine. Nearly 300 of our tanks and much more equipment including some MIG fighter planes have been given to Ukraine,” he said, adding: “We are trying to help but we are a frontline state. Russia has also threatened us, so there are limits to what we can do.”
Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz also reacted to Zelensky’s criticism, saying in a post on social media: “Poland has provided as much military equipment to Ukraine as possible but our own defence capabilities and the security of our country must remain a key priority.”
He added that any moves to shoot down Russian missiles would be collective NATO decisions.
Poland has thus far delivered 14 MIG-29s to Ukraine, the largest number of such aircraft transferred by any country. Slovakia, before its PM Robert Fico took power, provided Ukraine 13 MIGs after the defence of its air space was guaranteed by Poland and other NATO States.
The Poles have been among Kyiv’s strongest allies since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, though, tensions between the two countries have emerged over Ukrainian grain imports and what Poland sees as unfair competition from the country’s road haulage industry among other issues.
