Poland Bills EU €2 Bln for Weapons Sent to Ukraine

Poland has delivered over €2.3 billion in weapons and military equipment to Ukraine over the past year, putting it third overall in arms aid behind only the United States and the UK. 

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed that Poland had billed the European Union for the vast majority of military equipment and weapons it transferred to Ukraine.

Morawiecki also said Warsaw was considering issuing an invoice to Brussels for 14 Leopard 2 main battle tanks that Poland had agreed to send to Kyiv.

Poland announced plans to double the size of its military in late 2021 from 150,000 to 300,000 soldiers, and subsequently laid out plans to increase defence spending to 4% of GDP - the highest within NATO.

The eastern European country has taken advantage of the crisis in Ukraine by sending vast quantities of old Soviet-era weapons to Kyiv in return for money from Orwell's EU peace fund but has so far received less than €200m from Brussels, according to Morawiecki.

While the EU paid the bill for arms sent to the East, Warsaw also criticized some of its neighbours, especially Germany, for being "not as generous" as they should be in supporting Kyiv militarily. 

Berlin should "send more weapons, send more ammunition, give more money to Ukraine because it's the richest and biggest country of all," Morawiecki said in a separate interview this week.