“There is no expectation, not even a minimal one, that we would send troops to Ukraine,” Paweł Zalewski, Secretary of State at Poland’s defense ministry, told public broadcaster Polish Radio after talks at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.
Zalewski met U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby and a group of U.S. lawmakers during a visit to Washington. He said American officials understood that Poland’s priority was securing its 600-kilometer frontier with Russia and Belarus, not deploying personnel across the border.
Earlier this week retired U.S. Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, now a special envoy on Ukraine for President Donald Trump, floated a proposal on Fox Business that would place European “resilience forces”—including Polish, British, French and German units—west of the Dnipro River to help police a potential ceasefire.
Zalewski said he had “no idea where General Kellogg’s statement came from,” adding that Poland had “important reasons” to keep its troops at home.
The government in Warsaw has repeatedly said its contribution to any future peace mission will be logistical support and air-bridge protection, rather than boots on the ground.
Poland, a NATO member that has supplied Kyiv with tanks, artillery and fighter jets, hosts the alliance’s main supply hub for weapons entering Ukraine. Warsaw says it spends about 4 percent of GDP on defense and is modernizing its own forces in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of its neighbor.
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Source: Polskie Radio 24