Armed Forces
Poland is not going to ship weapons to Ukraine
Fot. Airbus Defence and Space / space.airbus.com
Adviser of the Ukrainian president, Yuriy Lutsenko, claimed that during the NATO Summit in Wales a decision was made to send modern weapons to Ukraine. The countries which were to send the supplies reportedly included USA, France, Norway, Italy and Poland. Authorities of all these countries, excluding France, have already denied this information.
Polish Ministry of Defence denies that help for the Ukrainians would be organized by NATO in a form of an arms shipping operation. The Ministry claims that trusts have been created in order to facilitate financing of potential help, but NATO as an alliance has no capability of providing help by sending equipment, including weapons, to foreign countries.
Weapon shipment has been considered as a subject of bilateral relations of individual allies with Ukraine
Siemoniak emphasized the fact that no decision was made to “ship modern weapons from Poland to Ukraine”. Polish Defence Ministry is just willing to cooperate and supports the cooperation with Kiev. The support will be provided mainly in the fields of cyber-security, logistics, modernization of the command structure and communication systems and rehabilitation of the veterans. EUR 15 million is to be allocated for these purposes by the member states. Bilateral activity is a separate issue.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General, has clearly stated that the Alliance cannot deliver military equipment to Ukraine, but the individual member states have a right to do it. Siemoniak emphasizes the fact that in July this year the EU has canceled the embargo regarding possibility of delivering armament supplies for Ukraine. That means that the Polish defence industry may sell its products to the Ukrainian market.
This opportunity has already been used by the Maskpol company, which has sent tactical vests and helmets for the Ukrainian troops back in July. Many other Polish manufacturers may follow.
It is not that easy – such contracts are not easy to be signed day by day. We can be sure that the Polish defence industry is interested in selling the Polish-made armament. (…) [The Ukrainians] must know what they need and what they can afford, and then the negotiations may begin