Poland will eventually host the German Patriot missile batteries on its eastern border. After two weeks of negotiations, the Polish government accepted the German offer to position weapons on the Polish-Ukrainian border. But he did it reluctantly.
With our correspondent in Warsaw, Martin Chabal
The Polish Minister of Defense is upset to have to accommodate these air defense systems. The ruling party (PIS) would have preferred them to be settled in Ukraine rather than on its territory.
Recall that Germany has offered to reinforce the Polish border since a Ukrainian missile fell on Polish soil and killed two people in mid-November.
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Poland, which does not yet have this type of launchers, had then welcomed with open arms this proposal in the wake of this incident.
But the senior representatives of the PIS party have asked the Minister of Defense to backtrack: if Germany wants to help, it has only to install these weapons in Ukraine, the Polish government had then replied. Enough to feed the anti-German discourse of the Law and Justice party, which argues that Germany is trying to destabilize the Polish border, while refusing to help Ukraine directly.
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Forced into compromise
But the Polish proposal to put this equipment on the other side of the border was almost impossible to hold: these weapons – an American-made Patriot anti-aircraft system – belong to NATO defenses and it was then necessary to consult the members of the Alliance to move them.
Finally, the Law and Justice party agreed to install the Patriots missile batteries on its territory, but tries to show its voters that it was forced to accept a compromise with Germany which would not want to help the Ukraine.