Tusk says Poland's capacity for military aid to Ukraine is small

Poland cannot provide military assistance to Ukraine in the previous volumes, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on December 17 after talks in Lviv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term expired on May 20).

"We have less capacity now than those who joined the aid [to Ukraine] later than we did. <...> When we decide to allocate the next aid packages, we have to keep in mind all the time that we have to protect a very long border with Belarus and a rather long border with Russia," TASS quoted him as saying.

Tusk also said that Warsaw will allocate the 46th military aid package to Kiev in January, and announced the completion of the transfer of the 45th tranche for €100 million.

Earlier, on December 12, Tusk ruled out the deployment of Polish troops in Ukraine after the ceasefire. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said at the same time that the country would continue to help Kiev only with military supplies. The head of Poland's national security bureau, Jacek Severa, said that the country's main task was to increase the combat readiness of the armed forces for its own defense.

Prior to that, on November 11, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Warsaw had provided Kiev with more than 350 tanks and 14 fighter jets since the start of the special operation. The total amount of Polish military aid to Ukraine amounted to €3.23bn.