Both Poland’s right-wing parties, the Conservatives (PiS) and the Confederation party, have supported the US President Donald Trump’s attempts to kick-start peace negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and acknowledged that a deal has to be done.
The Confederation’s presidential candidate Sławomir Mentzen has gone the furthest by calling for an agreement with Putin to end the war in Ukraine during an interview with commercial Polish broadcaster Polsat on March 5.
Mentzen, who is polling at 20 per cent for May’s presidential election, praised Trump for “wanting to bring peace to Ukraine” and was critical of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for what he said was Zelensky’s refusal to compromise.
“We need to somehow come to an agreement with Putin to end this conflict,” Mentzen said, adding that in international relations “terms have always been dictated by the strong”. He said: “Europe must grow up and stop dealing with stupid things like fighting against carbon dioxide and censoring freedom of speech.”
He also said that what he saw as Europe’s weakness had been caused by the war breaking out.
“Politicians from Europe must understand that in war, it is strength that counts, not tweets or writing with crayons on pavements. Russia acted terribly and attacked Ukraine because it could. Because Europe is so weak,” he claimed.
Mentzen argued that it had been a mistake for Poland to have given Ukraine so much help without setting any conditions or boundaries.
“Yes, it is profitable for us for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, which is why Poles help Ukraine. Not out of sympathy but because it is simply profitable for us. But in the process, it should have been possible to negotiate many things important for Poland and for Poles”, rather than acting like “suckers and not partners.”
“We send weapons to Ukraine, we send money, we give social benefits, we provide medical treatment for free in Poland to Ukrainians who do not even have medical insurance, while Poles have to pay, and in return we get complaints and little gratitude,” continued Mentzen.
According to him, Poland should have forced Ukraine into economic concessions and for the Ukrainians to end the “Bandera cult”. That was in relation to the late Ukrainian right-wing leader Stepan Bandera, who allied with Nazi Germany.
Mentzen also condemned the country over the Polish victims of the Volhynia massacres committed by Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War.
The PiS has also criticised Ukraine and praised Trump. In December 2024, the party submitted a legislative draft banning the glorification of Bandera and making the propagation of “Banderism’”a criminal offence, alongside the propagation of Nazism, fascism and Communism.
Karol Nawrocki, the PiS’ presidential candidate, has backed this tough line. Following Zelensky and Trump’s clash in the Oval Office on February 28, he said the Ukrainian President needed to get back to the negotiating table quickly.
Former PiS education minister Przemysław Czarnek was scathing about the behaviour of the Ukrainian side, saying Zelensky had acted like a “fool” and that “Ukraine could not survive without US support”.
The PiS-aligned Polish President Andrzej Duda has also urged Zelensky to return to negotiations with the US urgently.
The party has for years been highly critical of Putin’s Russia, not only because of the invasion of Ukraine but also because of past history between Poland and Russia.
That included the invasion of Poland by Russia in 1939, the Katyn massacre of Polish officers carried out on the orders of Stalin and the imposition of Communism by the then-USSR after the the Second World War.
The centre-left government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been cool regarding Trump’s overtures towards Putin and have backed Zelensky, joining other European leaders in rallying around the Ukrainians.
The Polish administration has, though, insisted that it wished to maintain close relations with Washington.
