Poland is among the countries that have sent the most military aid to Ukraine, surpassed only by the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. Polish military aid to Ukraine is worth over $2 billion, the Polish defense ministry told Rzeczpospolita daily.
Polish military support for Ukraine began at the beginning of February, before the invasion began, when Poland’s Defense Ministry decided to donate selected equipment from the Polish Armed Forces’ stockpiles to Ukraine.
The Ukraine Support Tracker portal of the World Economy Research Institute in Kiel estimates the Poland’s declared support for the Ukrainian army is worth €1.82 billion. Only the U.S. (€22.86 billion), Great Britain (€4.13 billion), and Germany (€2.34 billion) have provided higher financial support. For comparison, the EU declared military support stands at €3.1 billion.
Poland places ahead of Canada (€1.36 billion), Norway (€560 million), Sweden (€550,000 million), Denmark (€510 million), Czechia (€480 million), and France (€470 million), among others.
However, if military aid for Ukraine is compared to national GDP, Estonia is the top-ranked country at 1 percent of GDP, followed by Latvia (0.88 percent) and Lithuania (0.35 percent). Poland is fourth with 0.3 percent of its GDP spent on helping Ukraine with military equipment, followed by Slovakia (0.2 percent) and Czechia (0.19 percent).
The Polish Defense Ministry notes that the support sent to Ukraine includes munitions, intelligent-guided offensive systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, tanks, and mortars.
“Poland is one of the leaders in not just military support but also humanitarian and medical aid,” the ministry adds.
The head of Poland’s National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, gave more specific information on the equipment sent to Ukraine, listing Krab gun-howitzers, Grot carbines, Piorun portable anti-air missile launchers, Warmate loitering munitions, and FlyEye recon drones.
“We receive up-to-date feedback from the battlefield, regarding the equipment’s performance, which is extremely valuable,” said Siewiera.
Siewiera noted that Poland and Germany will host an EU training mission which could train as many as 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Also, the EU’s operational command, known as the Combined Arms Training – Command, will be formed in Poland.
The most specific data is offered by the Cryxspioenkop.com portal monitoring the Ukraine war, which shows Poland has sent over 230 tanks, including T-72M and T-72M1 tanks, along with around 110 self-propelled artillery systems and a large number of rocket launchers.
Poland also sent 18 state-of-the-art AHS Krab gun-howitzers to Ukraine, and a further 54 were purchased by Ukraine. Poland additionally transferred munitions for tanks, artillery, ground-to-air missiles, and at least 100 air-to-air missiles for MiG29 fighter jets.
In addition, Poland also donated at least 160 Piorun anti-air missile launchers, various types of mortars (including lightweight “commando” mortars), grenade launchers, UKM-2000P machine guns, FB Tantal, AKMS, and the most modern Grot rifles. Already in February 2022, Poland transferred large quantities of protection equipment for soldiers, including 42,000 helmets.
Poles have self-organized many fundraisers to procure weapons for Ukraine, such as the famed Bayraktar drone, 20 recon FlyEye UAVs, and 20 Warmate loitering munition units produced by Poland’s WB Electronics. Currently, a fundraiser for the purchase of a medical helicopter for Ukrainian special forces is underway.
