Tusk names condition for sending Polish soldiers to Ukraine
Poland is ready to send its soldiers to Ukraine only after the end of hostilities. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said this on 15 January at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (his term of office expires in May 2024).
Discussing sending Polish soldiers to Ukraine as a security guarantee, Tusk said that this is not a plan of Poland or Ukraine.
"It is not about us demonstrating once again how close we are to each other, but about real security guarantees that will be respected, to violate which everyone in the world will be afraid of," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the Polish leader as saying.
Tusk noted that he was referring exclusively to those guarantees, which can only come into force after the end of hostilities.
"We must convince all partners in NATO - both European and in the United States- to jointly provide such a mechanism, a complete mechanism, a stable mechanism that guarantees the preservation of agreements, if such ends <conflict>," he emphasized.
Also at the press conference, Tusk said that Poland during its presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) will work to accelerate Ukraine's accession to the association.
Earlier in the day, the operational command of the Polish Armed Forces said that military aviation was put in the air in the country because of alleged Russian actions in Ukraine.
The day before, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany will deploy Patriot surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs) in Polish Rzeszów by the end of January. He specified that the settlement was of great importance as a logistical hub for assistance to Ukraine.
Before that, on 12 January, Polish Defense Minister Vladyslav Kosyniak-Kamysh noted that the state excluded the possibility of sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine. It was reported that despite the position of Ukraine's staunch ally, relations between Kiev and Warsaw have escalated due to historical grievances, cheap exports of Ukrainian farms, as well as growing dissatisfaction with Ukrainian refugees.
The special operation to protect Donbass, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, is still ongoing. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.
