A historical dispute has divided Poland and Ukraine, and now it also threatens military aid to Kiev. The Polish opposition believes that the transfer of “Patriot“ missiles to Ukraine threatens Polish national security.
Relations between Poland and Ukraine have been in deep crisis for weeks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to award a Ukrainian military unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA“ (Ukrainian Insurgent Army – ed.) has caused a wave of indignation in Poland. They believe that the UPA is responsible for the killing of over 100,000 Polish civilians during World War II.
Since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Warsaw has been supporting Kiev with weapons and equipment. Military cooperation between the two neighboring countries, which see Russia as an existential threat to their security, has so far been accepted by all political forces in Poland.
The Polish opposition is against military aid to Kiev
Now, however, the opposition is attacking the center-left government for the supply of Patriot anti-missile systems to Kiev and accusing pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk of jeopardizing his own country's defense capabilities.
President Karol Nawrocki and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky tried to find a way out of the crisis at the NATO summit in Ankara - without success. "There has been a lot of tension in Polish-Ukrainian relations lately. We have not been able to resolve historical issues," Nawrocki told reporters after the hour-long meeting. The Polish president also makes no secret of his skepticism about Ukraine's ambitions for EU membership.
The dispute over the Polish Patriot missiles was sparked by the leader of the far-right Freedom and Independence confederation and deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, Krzysztof Bosak. "In March, the government transferred expensive and difficult-to-produce Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine, secretly from the Sejm," he wrote in X. According to him, these are the only such missiles available to the Polish army to combat the Russian Iskanders. His party has long been pushing for an end to military aid to Ukraine.
Government publishes secret data on aid to Ukraine
Marcin Przydzic, the foreign policy chief in the presidential administration, assessed Bosak's suggestion as "very likely". He also accused the government of giving Ukraine its place on the waiting list for weapons ordered from the US. "Poles will now wait longer", he complained.
Przemysław Czarnek, the leading candidate of the right-wing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party in the 2027 parliamentary elections, said that Poland had "been deprived of strategic weapons without the knowledge of the parliament and the president". He also claims that for two years now, Ukraine has stopped treating Poland as a partner and is increasingly confronting it.
To refute the criticism from the opposition, Tusk's government has decided on a risky move. A week ago, Defense Minister Władysław Kosińska-Kamiś published previously secret data on Polish military aid since the beginning of the war. It is clear from them that Poland has spent 16.45 billion zlotys (3.8 billion euros) on this purpose, with the majority of it (14.9 billion zlotys or 3.4 billion euros) being provided by the PiS government in the period 2022-2023.
Poland's air defense is "not affected"
The decision to provide PAC-3 interceptor missiles for the “Patriot“ systems was taken at the request of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the Supreme Commander of the US Armed Forces in Europe, Alexis Grinkiewicz. Polish air defense is in no way affected, assured Defense Minister Kosińska-Kamiś. Incidentally, President Nawrocki was informed in detail.
Polish media note the paradoxical situation: until recently, the government and the opposition competed to see who would do more for Ukraine. Recently, however, both sides have been accusing each other of supplying too much weapons to it. Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who was a staunch supporter of the aid during his term, recently noted cynically: "The deal was like this: we supply you with 50-year-old tanks, and you fight and shed your own blood. I think it was a good deal for us".
The bad atmosphere in Polish-Ukrainian relations is also making it difficult for another arms exchange deal: At the end of 2025, Warsaw had committed to delivering MiG fighter jets to Kiev. In return, Poland was to receive modern Ukrainian drones. According to information from Warsaw, the Ukrainian side asked Poland to modernize the aircraft at its own expense before the deal was concluded. However, Warsaw refused. Defense Minister Kosyniak-Kamysh still does not consider the agreement to have failed completely.
Is escalation possible?
Zelensky's chief of staff, Kirill Budanov, expects tensions with Poland to increase - this Saturday (July 11) marks the anniversary of the Volyn massacre. During the so-called “Bloody Sunday” In July 1943, UPA fighters carried out attacks on dozens of settlements in the disputed region of Volhynia, populated mainly by Poles. At the time, the UPA sought to expel Poles from the region and thus create favorable conditions for a Ukrainian national state after World War II.