President forges ahead

Poland “ready” for deployment of nuclear weapons

Duda can imagine nuclear weapons on Polish soil.

(Bild: AFP)

Poland has declared its readiness to deploy nuclear weapons to deter Russia. Warsaw will comply with the wishes of its allies, declared President Andrzej Duda. He had already raised the sensitive issue "several times" at bilateral meetings with the USA. 

"If our allies decide to station nuclear weapons on our territory as part of nuclear sharing in order to strengthen NATO's eastern flank, we are prepared to do so," said Duda in an interview with the newspaper "Fakt" published on Monday.

Meeting with Trump
NATO member Poland is one of Ukraine's most important supporters and borders both the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Russia's ally Belarus.

Duda, who is currently in Canada, discussed the war in Ukraine with former US President Donald Trump during a visit to the USA last week. In March, the Polish head of state met Trump's successor Joe Biden.

"A topic for some time"
The issue of a possible stationing of nuclear weapons in Poland has been discussed between Poland and the USA "for some time", said Duda. "I have already raised this issue several times."

"Russia is increasingly militarizing the Kaliningrad region," Duda continued. He also referred to the stationing of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which Moscow had moved there in the summer of 2023.

Nuclear threat scenarios 
Since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin had repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons.

At the NATO summit in Vilnius in July 2023, the members of the alliance committed to taking all necessary steps to ensure the credibility and effectiveness of "their nuclear deterrence mission, including the further modernization of their nuclear capabilities and the updating of their planning process".