Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said this week his country will no longer supply new weapons to Ukraine in a sudden reversal of support from one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies in the war against Russia.
Morawiecki told Polish media channel Polsat News on Wednesday that Poland would no longer be “transferring any weapons” to Ukraine.
“We will now arm ourselves with the most modern weapons,” he said.
The Polish embassy in Washington, D.C., said in an email to The Hill the country still carries out “previously agreed-upon deliveries of ammunition and weaponry” under signed contracts and would remain an international hub of assistance for other Western arms flowing into Ukraine.
Polish Ambassador to the U.S. Marek Magierowski said on X, formerly Twitter, that “over the last 17 months we have basically gutted our military for the sake of Ukraine’s war effort.”
“Poland is now striving to make up for the depletion of our own capabilities,” he continued in the post.
The decision is a major blow to Ukraine, which has relied on Western support for arms deliveries to stay in the fight against Russian forces and has worked hard to maintain that support.
If the Polish support remains frozen, it would be a big victory for Moscow. Part of Russia’s strategy is to stay in the fight long enough to entrench themselves in eastern Ukraine and hope that Western support cracks over time.
Morawiecki’s announcement comes after Kyiv said it will sue Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in the World Trade Organization for banning grain and agricultural imports from Ukraine.
A European Union commission over the spring allowed those countries to temporarily ban the agricultural imports, but the commission recently declined to extend the ban. That led Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to impose bans of their own and Ukraine to sue in response.
Poland says shipping large amounts of Ukrainian grain into its country is creating high stocks of product and market volatility, which is impacting its farmers and economy.
“The enormous increase in the import of grains and oilseeds into Poland at the turn of 2022 and 2023 has led to significant market disruptions in our country,” the Polish embassy said to The Hill.
Polish officials also accused Ukraine of negotiating the tensions with hostility.
“In recent days we witnessed a series of utterly unacceptable diplomatic statements and gestures which have emerged from the Ukrainian side,” they wrote in the email. “Poland does not accept such unwarranted actions.”
The decision follows comments earlier this week from Polish President Andrzej Duda comparing Ukraine’s fight for survival to that of a “drowning person” capable of bringing down those who try to help.
“Ukraine is behaving like a drowning person clinging to anything available,” Duda told Polish journalists, the Financial Times reported. “A drowning person is extremely dangerous, capable of pulling you down to the depths … simply drown the rescuer.”