Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has strongly criticised NATO partners, singling out Poland for failing to deliver promised MiG fighter jets and refusing to intercept Russian missiles over Ukraine’s western territories.
Speaking at a meeting with leaders of local authorities in the Zakarpattia region, Zelenskyy revealed that his government had held talks with Poland about further transfers of military equipment and air defence systems over gas storage facilities in the Lviv region.
“NATO countries are afraid of making decisions on their own. We have good relations with Poland, Polish people support us. However, we have constantly asked them to shoot down missiles heading towards Poland,” he said.
Kyiv asked Poland to protect the gas storage near Stryi city, Lviv oblast, essential for Ukraine’s energy security. “Did the Poles shoot down the missiles? No,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Earlier this year, Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (PSL, EPP) promised that Warsaw would consider a request to shoot down missiles heading towards Poland but not yet in Polish airspace – although any decision would be taken only after consultation with NATO allies.
“We will not decide to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine without the alliance’s support and approval,” he said.
This was confirmed by Zelenskyy, who said that the authorities in Warsaw had expressed their willingness to shoot down Russian missiles on condition of support from the North Atlantic Alliance.
“We asked: just protect Stryi. We do not have enough systems to protect the gas storage. And what are the Poles doing? Are they shooting down? No. The Poles have said that they are prepared to shoot down if they are not alone in this decision, if NATO supports them,” Zelenskyy argued.
Ukraine’s request to Warsaw was rejected by former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who ruled out such commitment by Poland or any other ally.
“NATO will support Ukraine, and we have recently increased our support. But NATO’s policy remains unchanged – we will not participate in this conflict,” he told Ukrainian broadcaster Edyni Novyny in July, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Poland refuses to donate MiG fighters
Ukraine also expected Poland to deliver its remaining MiG-29 fighters. The type is one of the main combat aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force, which means that, unlike the Western fighters promised to Ukraine, Ukrainian personnel will not have to be retrained to operate them.
“We really wanted to get MiGs from Poland,” stressed Zelenskyy. “But they couldn’t transfer them because they didn’t have enough of their own,” he added.
The Ukrainian president said he had agreed with Stoltenberg that Poland would get the police mission, meaning NATO aircraft would compensate for the MiGs.
“We agreed with NATO that they would provide [Poland] with a police mission. Did Poland give us planes after that? No. They found another reason,” he said.
“Without supplying them to us, the Poles did not even dare to shoot down the missiles themselves,” he added.
Poland’s Chargé d’Affaires to Ukraine, Piotr Łukasiewicz, explained that while Poland has transferred some parts and MiG-29s over the past two years, it must retain 10 to 15 remaining Soviet fighters for national defence until new F-16s and F-35s arrive as part of an ongoing air force transformation.
On a visit to Kyiv in September, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski (PO, EPP) said that Poland was considering handing over the remaining MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine, where they were no longer essential for protecting the Polish skies.
Until then, delivering the fighters is not an option, President Andrzej Duda told Radio Zet earlier this week. “We have said that we want to donate them, but there is one condition,” which is having Polish skies sufficiently secured, he said.
Polish F-35s are currently being developed at the Lockheed Martin plant in Forth Worth, Texas, but deliveries will not begin until 2026. Another solution mentioned by Duda is for allied aircraft to be temporarily stationed in Poland, ready to defend the borders.
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