Conflict in the Middle East an important lesson for Europe 

The cabinet meeting was attended today by Head of the National Security Office Jacek Siewiera, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army Gen. Wiesław Kukuła and the Operational Commander of the Armed Forces Gen. Maciej Klisz. One of the topics discussed at the meeting of the council of ministers was the situation of Polish soldiers who participate in the UN missions in Lebanon and Iraq.  

“They aren’t threatened by anything at the moment, they aren’t involved in any actions that would be a consequence of the increased tension (in the Middle East),” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told at the press conference.

Both Poland and the other countries of our continent need to draw conclusions from the current global situation. Donald Tusk acknowledged that there could be no assurance that the Iran-Israel conflict wouldn’t develop in a way worrying not only for the region but for the whole world. Iran's modus operandi could be used by Russia for future attacks in our region.  

“According to the analysis of our our military men, it’s not impossible that this could be the next phase of aggression by Russia. We need to study each incident or attack of this type very carefully, because there are conclusions for Poland to be drawn from this,” the head of government admitted. 

The basic conclusion for the moment is that in order to build real security, you need to control the sky over your territory.  

“In the case of Israel, more than 90 percent of drones, missiles and ballistic missiles were taken down thanks to, among other things, the Iron Dome. This system works,” said Donald Tusk.  

Head of government compared this to the defence capabilities of Ukraine, which was only able to shoot down 30 percent of missiles and drones. This gives the idea of the scale of threat to those countries that aren’t prepared to protect their sky. 

Poland wants to participate in the construction of the “Iron Dome” over Europe 

The government’s task is to use “every opportunity, every ally, every installation to arm the Polish skies and make Poland safe”.

“I’ve received with satisfaction the assessment and opinion of the generals and Minister Jacek Siewiera that my idea is reasonable: we need to make Poland part of a number of systems from which, at the end, a possibly tight iron dome should be formed over the Polish sky (...) They all confirmed unequivocally that it was a pity that there had been no positive decision on participation in the European Sky Shield in the past,” Donald Tusk admitted.

Head of government announced that he would involve Poland in all possible systems and integrate them, so that the dome over the Polish sky would be as tight as possible. This is currently a priority.

“We’ll collaborate on the European Sky Shield initiative. It doesn’t bother me at all that this initiative is led by Germany. This system works with, among others, the Israeli installations. We’ll obviously continue to cooperate with the British, I’ll discuss this issue with the British prime minister,” Donald Tusk announced.

Cooperation with the United States will also remain of key importance. In addition, Poland will further develop its own systems, such as Pilica, Narew and Vistula.

Mistakes made in the past  

Poland could have prepared better if the previous government hadn’t taken a number of erroneous decisions.

“In 2015, towards the end of our government tenure, the decision was taken to purchase Patriots. It was challenged later on by minister Macierewicz. Instead of eight batteries, a contract was finally signed for only two,” Donald Tusk recalled. 

There were more decisions of this type. Another example is the the tender for armed drones.  

“Antoni Macierewicz cancelled the ongoing tender proceedings We ended up being able to afford – in terms of time and organisation – to buy a small number of these types of drones, when the war in Ukraine had already entered a critical phase,” prime minister added. 

Most of the purchases made in the past were the result of faulty strategies of the previous government, “followed by panic into which PiS fell after the war broke out”.

“I’m not obsessed with mister Macierewicz. I have reason to be obsessed, but I’m not. On the other hand, not a day goes by without me talking to the Minister of National Defence or people responsible for Poland’s security and discovering further damage done by this wrongdoer,” said Donald Tusk. 

The head of government also appealed to all politicians to take this subject very seriously and to unite when it comes to security issues.