WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland will not send troops to Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Monday, as he set off for an emergency summit in Paris to discuss Europe’s role in any ceasefire.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier became the first European leader to say he was ready to put peacekeeping troops in Ukraine.
“Poland will support Ukraine as it has done so far: organisationally, in accordance with our financial capabilities, in terms of humanitarian and military aid,” Tusk told reporters before boarding a plane to Paris.
“We do not plan to send Polish soldiers to the territory of Ukraine. We will … give logistical and political support to the countries that will possibly want to provide such guarantees in the future, such physical guarantees.”
Tusk warned against questioning Europe’s alliance with the United States, after a tumultuous week that has left many countries fearing they cannot count on support from Washington and that President Donald Trump will do a Ukraine peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that undermines Kyiv and broader European security.
“Poland … can and must play a positive role,” he said. “By this I mean (ensuring) the closest possible cooperation between Poland, Ukraine, the European Union, the United States, European countries such as Great Britain and Norway. There can be no place for ‘either/or’ – the European Union or the United States.”
He said it was not the time to think about building an alternative to the NATO transatlantic military alliance and said countries offering security guarantees to Ukraine must be sure they could fulfil them.
“We must show that we are capable of much greater investment in our defence capabilities,” he said. “I will ask the prime ministers if they are ready to take decisions for real.” (This story has been corrected to restore the missing part of Donald Tusk’s quote, in paragraph 4)
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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