Ukraine’s Zelenskiy meets Poland’s Trump-backed president at key moment in war

By Alan Charlish and Barbara Erling

WARSAW, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Volodymyr Zelenskiy met Poland’s MAGA-aligned President Karol Nawrocki in Warsaw on Friday as the Ukrainian leader tries to shore up relations with a key ally at a crucial moment for Kyiv’s war effort.

The meeting took place just hours after European Union leaders — whom U.S. President Donald Trump recently branded “weak” — agreed to borrow cash to loan 90 billion euros ($105 billion) to Ukraine to support its defence against Russia over the next two years.

Zelenskiy was greeted by Nawrocki outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, where the leaders were scheduled to hold talks.

While there is broad agreement in Warsaw that aid for Kyiv is essential in order to keep Russian forces away from Poland’s borders, hardening attitudes towards Ukrainian refugees have fuelled simmering tensions.

In a nod to rising anti-Ukrainian sentiment among some right-wing voters, nationalist Nawrocki had insisted that Zelenskiy should visit Warsaw to thank Poland for its support before he would consider visiting Kyiv.

“We should support Ukraine, and we do,” Nawrocki said in an interview with the wp.pl news website published on Monday.

“At the same time, we should… ensure that Ukraine treats Poland as a partner. The conflict has been going on for nearly four years, and I have the impression that we Poles often don’t feel like partners in this relationship.”

Nawrocki’s approach to relations with Kyiv is much cooler than that of his predecessor Andrzej Duda, and reflects the increasing fractures on the right of Polish politics.

POLITICAL DIVISION

Zelenskiy said when confirming Friday’s visit that maintaining relations with Poland was “very important”.

Political analysts say it is necessary for Zelenskiy to build a warmer relationship with Nawrocki given the mounting scepticism about aid for Ukraine among many people in Poland, a country which has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest backers since Russia invaded in 2022.

Wojciech Przybylski, head of the Res Publica Foundation think tank, believes that Nawrocki, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, could prove valuable to the Ukrainian president.

“Zelenskiy needs allies and circles who have some ties to Donald Trump… so here, Nawrocki is showing that he holds the cards and is thus trying to establish himself as a significant player in Ukraine,” he said.

While Nawrocki’s presidential election campaign this year was backed by Poland’s largest nationalist opposition party PiS, his eventual victory in June’s run-off vote owed much to supporters of far-right parties who say Poland has given Ukraine too much support.

Such views are becoming increasingly common. A Pollster survey for the Super Express tabloid published on Tuesday found that 57% of respondents had a negative opinion about Poland’s decision to spend $100 million on U.S. arms for Ukraine.

Poland’s approach to the war in Ukraine also forms part of a bitter feud at the heart of Polish politics between MAGA-enthusiast Nawrocki and centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Council president.

Tusk said on Thursday that he would meet Zelenskiy in Warsaw after returning from the summit.

He has previously berated right-wing parties over their attitude to Ukraine, telling them to “stand by Ukraine’s side in its war with Russia with no ‘buts'”.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Barbara Erling in Warsaw; Olena Harmash in Kyiv; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)