2024-04-11 19:28 update: 2024-04-12, 14:28
FOT. PAP/Valdemar Doveiko
Andrzej Duda, Poland's president, has said his country has just started building its Patriot air-defence system and so could not give it to Ukraine "even if we wanted to."
Duda was speaking at a joint press conference in Vilnius with his Lithuanian and Ukrainian counterparts following the ninth Summit of the Three Seas Initiative, a project to develop infrastructure between countries lying between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas.
The Polish president was asked whether he had considered making Poland's Patriot system available to Ukraine.
"We are just starting the building of that system in Poland; that system is absolutely not yet ready in Poland," he replied. "Actually, today, Poland has nothing to give, even if we wanted to."
Duda admitted that Patriot batteries were present in Poland but that "they are systems that were deployed in Poland by the United States army and British army."
He pointed out that Russian missiles had breached Polish airspace and that as such, "we find ourselves in a situation of threat of a potential Russian attack."
However, Duda said, Poland may consider handing some of its Soviet-era rockets to Ukraine.
He said he had held a discussion with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, "about a certain stockpile of rockets dating back to the Soviet era, which Poland now has at its disposal.
"They are now in warehouses and we talked about handing them to the Ukrainian anti-rocket defence forces."
Duda added that he will discuss the subject with Poland's defence minister. (PAP)
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