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WAR IN UKRAINE

US urged to put nuclear weapons on Polish soil

Polish, Slovenian and Czech prime ministers visit Kyiv
Support for the shield came from the ­deputy prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski
ANDRZEJ LANGE/EPA

Poland is open to hosting US nuclear weapons to protect itself against Russian aggression.

The move, should it happen, would be a significant escalation in a new Cold War with Russia and would be viewed as a provocation by Putin. Support for a US nuclear shield came yesterday from Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the country’s deputy prime minister and founder and leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, who is often dubbed Poland’s chief of state.

“Basically, it makes sense to expand nuclear sharing to the eastern flank,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, in a reference to Nato’s northeastern members Poland and the Baltic states. “If the Americans asked us to store US nuclear weapons in Poland, we would be open to that. It would significantly increase deterrence towards Moscow.”

U.S. troops arrive in Poland to reinforce Eastern Europe allies
American soldiers in Poland in February
KUBA STEZYCHI/REUTERS

Poland is pushing for “a large operational Nato command in Poland”, Kaczynski said, such as the allied air command in the Netherlands at Brunssum, “where joint Nato operations can be planned and conducted”.

He said: “That would send a clear signal to Moscow: the Nato leadership is now also present in the east,” and urged Washington to increase troop numbers “from the present 100,000 soldiers up to 150,000 in the future due to Russia’s increasing aggression. Of these, 75,000 soldiers should be stationed on the eastern flank, on the border with Russia, with 50,000 soldiers in the Baltic states and Poland.”

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Kaczynski, 72, criticised Germany and France for having a “strong bias in Moscow’s favour”, but reserved his harshest words for Berlin. He said: “I am very dissatisfied with the behaviour of the German government. Germany could supply more weapons. And Germany could speak out in favour of an oil embargo in the EU. Over the years the German government did not want to see what Russia was doing under the leadership of Putin and we see the result today.”

Poland is the leader of a “sanctionista” bloc of EU countries pressing hard against Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece for tougher economic sanctions against Russia, prioritising an embargo on oil.

Oil exports have been worth some €8.5 billion to Russia since it invaded Ukraine, and Germany is dependent on Russian imports for a third of its supply.

“We cannot continue permanently to support a great power like Russia by paying it billions,” Kaczynski said. “This is inadmissible from a political and moral point of view. This has to come to an end, and Germany should finally take a clear stance on this.”

Poland, particularly the governing PiS party, has repeatedly denounced Germany’s role within wider European politics, with Kaczynski previously referring to German EU policy as tantamount to a “fourth Reich”.

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During negotiations in 2007 on a new EU treaty, he demanded a greater voting weight on Brussels’ council of ministers and asked leaders to compensate Poland for the “unimaginable injury” of losing of almost 20 per cent of its population at the hands of Nazis in the Second World War.

“Poland is not pleased with Germany’s role in Europe,” he said, accusing today’s Germany of emulating Bismarck’s 19th-century policy of preventing Polish independence to ensure “German domination but side by side with Russia”.

Andriy Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, attacked President Steinmeier of Germany, a Social Democrat, yesterday for “creating a spider’s web of contacts with Russia over decades”.

Speaking to Berlin’s Tagesspiegel Sonntag newspaper, Melnyk said: “For Steinmeier, the relationship with Russia was and remains something fundamental, even sacred, no matter what happens.”

Hosts to American bombs

Four countries in mainland Europe plus Turkey have American nuclear weapons on their soil for Nato’s deterrent (David Charter writes).

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Since the end of the Cold War the US arsenal has consisted of air-launched tactical nuclear bombs, kept under guard by the US Air Force at two bases in Italy and one each in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey. They are kept in vaults and can be deployed by the national air force.

Britain and France have their own nuclear weapons, which only the UK commits to Nato under the alliance’s Article 5 pledge that all members will come to the aid of one that comes under armed attack.

Seven more European nations are in the Support of Nuclear Operations With Conventional Air Tactics (SNOWCAT) group and provide conventional air support: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Poland and Romania. All 30 members of the alliance apart from France are part of Nato’s nuclear planning group.

Nuclear-capable US aircraft have been based in the UK since 1949 but the last US nuclear weapons were withdrawn in 2006. Greece hosted US nuclear weapons until 2001.

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