Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland's military spending has surged to 4.1% of GDP in 2024 and will reach 4.7% in 2025, making it the highest spender relative to GDP.
Defense minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz told the Financial Times such investment is a necessity due to Poland's borders with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and Belarus, a Moscow ally.
He said: “We have bought a lot, but our place on the map makes the investment and the purchase of equipment simply necessary.”
NATO defense spendings: Poland at the forefront
Donald Trump, who returns to the White House on January 20, repeatedly criticized NATO European members for insufficient defense spending, with nine of 32 states still below the 2% GDP target nearly three years into the war.
Trump expects the spending to be ramped up to 5%, and while Poland meets his demands, Kosiniak-Kamysz noted others may need a decade to comply. He added, however, that that Trump “should not be criticized for setting a really ambitious target because otherwise there will be some countries that will continue to debate whether more spending is really needed.”
Spain and Italy were the lowest spenders, at just under 1.3% of GDP.
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez pledged to meet the 2% defense target by 2029, while Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, aligned with Trump ideologically, struggles with debt and many EU countries’ resistance to excluding military spending from deficits.
Poland, meanwhile, which just took over the EU’s rotating six-month presidency, aims to push for €100 billion in defense spending from in EU’s 2028-2034 budget, far exceeding the €1.5 billion proposed by the European Commission last year.
Kosiniak-Kamysz argued that if going into debt was an option to rebuild after COVID, funding defense “to protect ourselves from war” should be a priority.
“I know this is not a view shared by all, but Poland has a different opinion. We need to remember that there are some big European countries whose opinion was not always the right one, and that in relation to Russia they were wrong,” said the minister, in what can be interpreted as a jab at Germany’s policy toward Russia in the years leading up to the war.
He aims to persuade allies to allocate €100 billion for defense, partly by redirecting unspent funds from the €800 billion post-pandemic recovery budget that will expire next year.
Aid for Ukraine
Kosiniak-Kamysz ruled out sending Polish troops to Ukraine to enforce any Trump-brokered ceasefire, however saying that that Poland and other Ukraine’s “border states are not the ones who should in any way appear with their troops in Ukraine,” and added that “there should be greater burden sharing and diversification within NATO.”
Poland has heavily supported Ukraine in the initial stage of the war, not only through political advocacy, but also in depleting its Soviet-era weapons stocks. Kyiv’s demands for more, including Poland’s remaining MiG-29 jets which are yet to be fully replaced by modern Western aircraft, have caused frustration.
While expressing understanding for Zelenskyy’s push for aid, Kosiniak-Kamysz said that “he and Ukraine must also remember that when others were only sending helmets, we sent tanks.”
Three years into the conflict, the Polish-Ukrainian relationship has soured. A number of moves and statements made by Kyiv, such as those made during the so-called grain row in 2023, have been perceived by the Poles as ungrateful. Furthermore, Poland hosting nearly one million refugees sparked societal fatigue.
“Of course there is fatigue in Polish society, and it is understandable especially when people here see young Ukrainian men driving the latest cars or staying in five-star hotels,” Kosiniak-Kamysz told the Financial times.
Kyiv has also long delayed addressing the World War II genocide of over 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists. It was not until earlier this week, amid the question being
raised in Polish political discourse ahead of elections, that Ukraine
caved in and permitted the exhumation and proper reburials for the victims.
