Poland has sent to Ukraine all the weapons it can without sacrificing its own security, Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Tuesday
The senior official, who also serves as the country’s defense minister, was reacting to remarks made earlier in the day by Vladimir Zelensky. The Ukrainian leader had asked for Polish fighter jets and for Warsaw to shoot down Russian missiles over Western Ukraine, although he acknowledged that both requests were unlikely to be met anytime soon.
“The Polish government, both our government and the government of our predecessors, have donated billions of dollars’ worth of equipment to Ukraine. That’s all we were able to donate,” Kosiniak-Kamysz told the national news agency PAP later in the day when asked about Zelensky’s remarks.
It is Zelensky’s job to bargain with foreign governments for more assistance, the Polish minister said, but for Poland its own security is the top priority.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, a political ally of the previous conservative government, highlighted last week the scale of both military and non-military aid provided to Ukraine, saying that the country had spent roughly 3.3% of its GDP on it.
Among the items Poland has not donated is its remaining fleet of Soviet MiG 29 fighter jets. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in early July that the aircraft were needed for protecting Poland and would have to be replaced before being made available to Kiev.
Kosiniak-Kamysz told PAP that the F-35 fighter jets that Poland ordered from the US won’t replace the MiGs until at least 2026.
He also reiterated that Poland will not engage Russian projectiles at Kiev’s request unless other NATO nations overcome their skepticism about the idea. Warsaw first rejected the Ukrainian proposal ahead of this year's summit of the US-led bloc in mid-July.
Moscow considers the Ukraine conflict to be a proxy war waged by the US and its allies against Russia. Russian officials have called the stakes existential and have emphasized that the country will not yield.
Russia claims that no amount of Western aid will alter the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine's favor and that continued arms deliveries simply prolong the hostilities and result in more casualties and destruction.