Poland will deliver its 45th support package to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced after a phone call with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The two leaders talked on the occasion of the 1,000 days passed since the beginning of the Russian invasion for Ukraine, in which Poland has been a staunch supporter of Kyiv.
“I thanked the Polish nation for its solidarity with Ukraine since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and Prime Minister [Tusk] for his personal, principled response to the recent Russian shelling and attempts to end the political isolation of the Russian dictator Putin,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
He was referring to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s phone call with Putin on Friday. Tusk initially thanked Scholz for conveying Poland’s position on Ukraine but two days later criticised Scholz’s decision to call the Russian president, saying, “No one will stop Putin with phone calls.”
Zelenskyy also wrote that Tusk had informed him about work on a new 45th support package for Ukraine. He did not elaborate on what the package would contain.
The leaders also discussed bilateral defence cooperation and the prospects for Ukraine’s EU membership, including expectations of the Polish EU presidency beginning in January.
Zelenskyy wrote that he counted on “Poland’s support in the negotiation process with the EU regarding the opening of the first negotiation cluster and the parallel opening of subsequent clusters.”
He also thanked Tusk for his country’s support for Ukraine’s future NATO membership and its willingness to continue military assistance.
Both Zelenskyy and the Polish authorities have confirmed that Tusk and Zelenskyy had agreed to meet before the end of the year.
At the end of last month, Zelenskyy sharply criticised NATO partners, singling out Poland for failing to deliver promised MiG fighter jets and for refusing to intercept Russian missiles over Ukraine’s western territories.
Regarding the MiGs, Warsaw responded that Poland still needed them to protect its skies before it received newer aircraft. Shooting down Russian missiles by a NATO country was ruled out earlier this year by then NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (PSL, EPP) told Euractiv last week that he would like to see “more respect” from Kyiv for what Poland has done for Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war.
Asked if new NATO chief Mark Rutte held his predecessor’s view on shooting down Russian missiles, Kosiniak-Kamysz declined to answer, suggesting that he had not discussed the issue with Rutte when they met in Warsaw – even though his own view, as he told Euractiv, is that “no NATO country ought to make decisions about such engagement on its own”.
