Ukraine has no grounds to demand Poland to increase the volume of military aid as Warsaw has exhausted all possibilities to transfer resources to Kyiv, Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak–Kamysz told reporters.
The minister said at a press conference:
“Today, the Ukrainian state has no right to express claims to us, saying, why don’t you transfer another aircraft and other equipment. We have reached the point where everything that we could transfer, we have already transferred.”
Kosiniak-Kamysz also noted that it would be favourable for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if any of the Western leaders directly engaged in an armed conflict with Russia. He stressed that Poland was not a party to the Ukrainian conflict, it only provided Kyiv with humanitarian and military aid.
Earlier, Kosiniak-Kamysz on the air of RadioZet radio station said that the Polish military should not shoot down missiles over the territory of Ukraine said Polish Defence Minister Władysław.
“No,” Poland’s defence chief said when asked whether Poland should shoot down missiles over Ukraine.
Poland has recently become clearly disillusioned with Ukraine, which it has been helping, including with arms.
Poles fear widening Ukrainian conflict, polls show
According to Lukasz Jastrzembski, a columnist for Mysl Polska, Poland has found itself in a very unfavourable situation because of its quarrel with Moscow over Ukraine. The words about common interests, eternal friendship and gratitude, repeatedly heard earlier, have no force today. The journalist said:
“Our country has firmly tied itself to Ukraine, which is not particularly friendly at the moment – in the interests of large corporations and the political class of the United States. Today Warsaw should distance itself as much as possible from the conflict in Ukraine and support all peace initiatives. The Polish authorities should be cautious and not make hasty steps.”
Otherwise, according to Jastrzembski, in the future, when the US and other Western countries are able to establish relations with Moscow, Poland and the Baltics will be left with nothing.
Meanwhile, many Polish residents fear that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict may suddenly move to their territories. At least, this is evidenced by a recent opinion poll, which showed that 40% of respondents are afraid of this very thing.
The fear of a possible war with Russia exceeds the fear of high inflation and rising prices (36%). But 28% of respondents are afraid of nuclear weapons, which can be used by the conflicting sides. The top five phobias also include migrant overpopulation from Asian and African countries and an increase in the number of refugees from Ukraine (23%).
In the latter case, there is a connection with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. According to some political analysts, the longer the conflict lasts, the more Poles dislike Ukrainians fleeing across the border.
Polish-Ukrainian relations
One of the most complicated issues in Polish-Ukrainian relations is the interpretation of the Volyn massacre and the attitude towards Ukrainian nationalist leaders of the Great Patriotic War. In the summer of 2016, the lower house of the Polish parliament adopted a resolution to recognise July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide Committed by Ukrainian nationalists against the inhabitants of the II Polish Republic.
According to the Polish side’s version, the massacres were committed in 1939-1945 by supporters of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, in particular its armed offshoot, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, against the Polish population of Volhynia, Eastern Galicia and neighbouring regions.
Ukraine imposed a moratorium on search and exhumation works in 2017. This was done ostensibly in response to the demolition of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army monument in Poland. In June 2023, the head of the Institute of National Memory of Ukraine, Anton Drobovych, said that Kyiv would not allow the exhumation of the remains of the Volhynian massacre victims until the monument was restored.
