Warsaw Not to Transfer to Kiev New Weapons Purchased for Polish Army

According to Andrzej Duda, Poland has signed contracts with Ukraine, in particular for the supply of self-propelled Krab howitzers

Polish President Andrzej Duda AP Photo/Mary Alt

© AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. The Polish authorities do not intend to hand over to Ukraine the modern weaponry they purchase for their army, Polish President Andrzej Duda told the TVN24 channel.

"We cannot transfer our new arms, which we are now buying spending billions for the Polish army to strengthen it, to strengthen the security of Poland, to someone else. Whoever," he said. "We will not transfer these weapons because we are buying them in order to modernize the Polish army," Duda continued.

"I personally will be the first to stand against the transfer of these new weapons that we are now receiving from South Korea or the United States, such as new Abrams, Patriot or HIMARS systems," the president added.

According to him, Poland has signed contracts with Ukraine, in particular for the supply of self-propelled Krab howitzers. "It is necessary to honor this contract, and we are constantly fulfilling it," he pointed out.

Duda did not rule out that as new weapons are received from South Korea and the US, Poland will be able to hand over some old ones to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Warsaw was no longer supplying Kiev with any weapons. He said that his country was now acquiring state-of-the-art weapons for its army and had already placed large orders. Later, Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller explained Morawiecki's words, pointing out that the Polish authorities were only supplying Ukraine with previously agreed weapons.

Earlier, Poland handed over to Ukraine’s armed forces MiG-29 airplanes, T-72 and 14 Leopard 2 tanks, artillery shells and other munitions, portable surface-to-air missile systems, unmanned aerial vehicles worth about $3 billion.