Scandal erupts in Poland over ‘secret’ weapons shipment to Ukraine
Scandal erupts in Poland over ‘secret’ weapons shipment to Ukraine
The Polish opposition has demanded answers from the government after reports of a secret delivery of Patriot missiles to Ukraine Read Full Article at RT.com
Warsaw must introduce a law banning foreign arms supplies without consent from MPs, the deputy speaker of parliament has insisted
The parliamentary opposition in Poland has demanded answers from the government of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after reports of a secret delivery of in-demand Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine.
On Saturday, several Polish social media accounts, including prominent blogger Pawel Sokala, claimed that the authorities in Warsaw had handed over a batch of US-made PAC3 interceptors to Kiev in March without announcing it publicly or consulting with parliament.
The critical shortage of Patriot missiles due to their heavy use in the Ukraine conflict and the American-Israeli war against Iran had forced Washington to delay the contracted shipments of the interceptors to some of its allies in Europe and Asia in recent months. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Pentagon has exhausted almost 50% of its stockpile of Patriots since the attack on Tehran in late February.
The deputy speaker of the Polish parliament, Krzysztof Bosak, who leads the right-wing Confederation of Freedom and Independence party, described reports of the government keeping the lawmakers in the dark about the handover of the US-made missiles to Ukraine as “very disturbing information.”
“We desperately need them for our air defense system,” he said, claiming that the Patriots are the only type of munitions capable of shooting down the Russian Iskander missiles stationed in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
“We must pass a law prohibiting the transfer of any Polish weapons abroad without parliamentary consent,” Bosak insisted.
Moscow has repeatedly called speculations that it is planning to attack Western European countries “nonsense,” aimed at scaring domestic audiences and justifying increased defense spending. The Iskanders have been deployed in Kaliningrad for defensive purposes in response to NATO’s expansion, according to the Russian authorities.
Former Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak from the Law and Justice party said in a post on X on Saturday the alleged shipment of Patriots to Kiev “sounds like an action completely contrary to the basic duty of the authorities, namely ensuring the safety of their own citizens.”
Blaszczak insisted that Tusk’s government must answer if the delivery did happen and if Poland’s overall position in the queue for receiving the interceptors from the US has somehow been affected by it.
Warsaw has been one of the staunchest supporters of Kiev during its conflict with Moscow, but relations between the neighboring countries soured in recent weeks after Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky named a special-forces unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which was responsible for ethnic cleansing of Poles during the Second World War.
Earlier this week, Poland announced that it will not transfer its remaining Soviet-era MiG-29 jets to Ukraine, while also warning that Kiev will have problems with joining the EU if it continues to honor nationalists involved in crimes against the Polish people.
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