Polish solidarity with Ukraine one year on: Roberto Rabel, reporting on his recent observations in Poland, predicts on-going support for the struggle against Russian aggression.

• Date: 01 May 2023
• Author: Rabel, Roberto

Last year, I arrived in Poland as a visiting professor at the University of Warsaw in the week when Vladimir Putin unleashed his brutal invasion of Ukraine. Shortly afterwards, I wrote in this journal about how the spontaneous Polish outpouring of support for its imperilled neighbour was based on hard-won lessons of history. (1)

Having recently returned to Warsaw for another semester of teaching, I have been struck (if not surprised) by the sustained solidarity here with Ukraine after more than a year of war. The extent of this support has arguably made Poland Ukraine's most important ally within the European Union. It also underscores how profoundly the lessons of history continue to reverberate in Polish views and actions.

Polish support for Ukraine has been impressively extensive and multifaceted, spanning military, political, economic and humanitarian assistance. Moreover, Poland's impact has been multiplied by its facilitating role as the key frontline state through which military supplies, other material goods and people flow in and out of Ukraine--including world leaders, such as American President Joe Biden on his historic surprise visit to Kyiv on 20 February 2023.

Financially, Poland has been the fourth most generous donor to Ukraine over the past year, when aid is counted as a percentage of gross domestic product. (2) Only the small Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have given more according to this measure. In absolute terms, Poland's was fifth amongst national bilateral aid commitments, surpassed in the European Union only by Germany, which has a much greater economy and population. (3)

The level of Poland's military support over the past year is especially noteworthy. In absolute terms, it has pledged the third largest amount of bilateral military aid, behind only the United States and the United Kingdom--and well ahead of larger and richer EU states. (4) Amongst its most high-profile forms of military aid, Poland was first to deliver German-made Leopard tanks to Kyiv, successfully lobbying for others to follow suit. More recently, international media attention has focused on the Polish government's decision to offer Ukraine four of its Soviet-era MIG-29 fighter jets, with the none too subtle intent of nudging other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies, including the United States itself, to consider similar action. (5)

Refugee statistics

Another statistic that stands out is the number of Ukrainians in Poland. Several million Ukrainians crossed the border in the early stages of the war, temporarily boosting Warsaw's population by 16 per cent (over 250,000 people) and those of some smaller cities by even greater percentages. (6) Those peaks have subsided, with many returning to Ukraine or moving to other countries, but there are still as many as 1.5 million refugees in Poland, predominantly women and children. Outside Ukraine itself, Poland thus hosts the largest number of displaced Ukrainians in the world. (7)

What may matter even more than Polish material support for Ukraine is the political impetus for these efforts, which has ensured their continuity. Polish politicians from across the political spectrum have been consistent and passionate champions of Ukraine's cause in the European Union, NATO and more widely. The Polish government was amongst the first to back Ukrainian accession to the European Union, supports Ukraine joining NATO and constantly echoes Ukraine's own calls for more international assistance. There have been countless speeches by politicians and other symbolic gestures of solidarity with Ukraine, such as Polish President Andrzej Duda joining his...