Ukraine war
Poland only wants to fulfill agreed arms deliveries
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. photo
© Uwe Anspach/dpa
A statement made in an interview by Poland’s Prime Minister Morawiecki is causing speculation: Will Warsaw stop supplying arms to Ukraine? Apparently there should at least be restrictions.
Against the background of a dispute over the Polish ban on imports of Ukrainian grain, the government wants to… Warsaw restricts its arms deliveries to Kiev to contracts that have already been concluded.
“In connection with questions about arms deliveries, I would like to inform you that Poland only carries out previously agreed deliveries of ammunition and military equipment. Including those resulting from signed contracts with Ukraine,” said government spokesman Piotr Müller. This also includes the largest foreign contract that the Polish arms industry concluded after 1989 – the delivery of the Krab cannon howitzer. Müller criticized that there had recently been a series of “absolutely unacceptable statements and diplomatic gestures” from the Ukrainian side.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had previously caused speculation with a statement about arms deliveries to Kiev. In an interview on the TV channel Polsat News, he replied to the moderator’s question as to whether Poland would continue to support Ukraine with arms deliveries and humanitarian aid despite the grain dispute: “We are no longer supplying arms to Ukraine, but are arming ourselves with them the most modern weapons.”
Morawiecki went on to say that Poland has enormously expanded its orders for military equipment. The armed forces should be modernized so that Poland will have one of the strongest land armies in Europe, said Morawiecki.
While his first statement about armaments appeared to be clearly formulated, the context of the interview suggested that Morawiecki probably did not mean a complete stop to Polish arms deliveries to Kiev – rather, he seemed to emphasize that Poland was not only supplying arms to the neighboring country, but at the same time I am also upgrading my own army. Nevertheless, his statement was interpreted in several Polish and international news portals to mean that Poland no longer wanted to supply weapons to Kiev.
City of Rzeszow as a “hub”
At another point in the interview, Morawiecki emphasized that the government in Warsaw would in no way endanger Ukraine’s security. “Our hub in Rzeszow will continue to play the same role as before and in the future in agreement with the Americans and NATO,” he assured. A large part of Western military aid for Ukraine in its defense against the aggressor Russia goes through the city of Rzeszow in southeastern Poland.
The EU and NATO country Poland is not only one of Ukraine’s most important political and military supporters. Since the Russian war of aggression began in February 2022, it has also taken in a large number of war refugees from the neighboring country.