Why military aid to Ukraine has become a problem for Polish politicians
The intensification of political infighting inside Poland, together with the current extremely serious crisis between Kyiv and Warsaw, has led to military support for Ukraine becoming a hostage of this dispute.
Responding to criticism over the transfer of missiles for Patriot systems to Kyiv, the government of Donald Tusk decided to publish information about the volume of military aid provided to Ukraine since 2022.
Read more about the new political reality in Poland, where the Polish government and opposition are no longer competing over who helped Ukraine more, but rather who supported it less, in the article by Yurii Panchenko, co-founder of European Pravda: The race for less support: why Poland’s government and opposition are distancing themselves from aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The scandal began with criticism published on 3 July by Krzysztof Bosak, co-leader of the far-right party Confederation, regarding the Tusk government’s transfer of interceptor missiles for Patriot air-defence systems.
Anti-Ukrainian statements by representatives of Confederation, including proposals to limit or even halt military support, are nothing new. However, the issue unexpectedly drew in the presidential palace.
On 7 July, President Karol Nawrocki met with Krzysztof Bosak. After the meeting, first Bosak and then Marcin Przydacz, head of the Presidential Office’s Bureau of International Policy, stated that the government had not informed the president about the transfer of missiles to Ukraine.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government quickly responded to these accusations.
"The president’s circle is lying by claiming that President Nawrocki did not know about the transfer of equipment to Ukraine," said Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
"After consultations with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, while maintaining responsibility to the public and complying with legal requirements, I instructed [officials] to declassify all donations made to Ukraine for the years 2022-2026," Kosiniak-Kamysz later stated.
Attempts by the opposition, primarily the Law and Justice (PiS) party, to block the publication of information about aid to Ukraine failed. However, they demonstrated how much this party’s attitude towards Ukraine has changed: the assistance they were proud of just a few years ago has now become an image problem for them.
The publication of data on aid to Ukraine did not produce many surprises.
It was important for the government to show the public that the military assistance provided to Ukraine by the previous government (formed by the Law and Justice party) amounted to approximately €3.4 billion.
At the same time, in 2024-2026 (that is, during the term of Tusk’s government, which began operating in December 2023), the volume of military aid transferred to Ukraine amounted to a much smaller sum – around €350 million.
For the Law and Justice party, which supports President Karol Nawrocki, the published figures represented a painful blow.
Particularly damaging was criticism from rivals within the right-wing political camp.
"You criticise Tusk for doing exactly what [former PiS government Prime Minister Mateusz] Morawiecki did before. I should have become accustomed long ago to the incredible hypocrisy and arrogance of the PiS party, but you still manage to surprise me," said Confederation co-leader Sławomir Mentzen.
Meanwhile, President Karol Nawrocki announced a new legislative initiative concerning the donation of equipment to Ukraine. It is possible that Nawrocki will try to "tie" further aid to Ukraine to concessions from Kyiv on historical issues – and the right-wing opposition will likely support him in this.