Poland to be biggest recipient of EU arms fund says PM

Poland will become the EU’s biggest recipient of European funding to compensate countries that have sent military equipment to Ukraine, Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, has said.

He added that Poland was due to get EUR 300 million from the European Peace Fund.

The EU set the fund up to finance military purchases to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion and compensate EU members who have handed some of their weapons to Ukraine.

"We'll soon receive compensation of about EUR 300 million and Poland will be the biggest recipient of the EU's weapons fund," Morawiecki wrote on Facebook on Monday.

"To replace the weapons handed to Ukraine, we'll be able to purchase state-of-the-art weaponry, ammunition and create new manufacturing lines, and invest in the Polish arms industry!" Morawiecki said.

Last Friday, after the conclusion of an EU summit, Morawiecki announced Poland would receive EU compensation for the weapons it had given to Ukraine. He said at that time that by Easter Poland would receive EUR 300 million and an additional EUR 500-600 million in subsequent months.

Poland has given Ukraine a significant number of its Soviet-era T-72 tanks as well as Krab self-propelled howitzers, Grot assault rifles and ammunition. Recently, Warsaw made a decision to hand four of its Soviet-era MiG-29 fighters to Kyiv, and so became the first country to offer military jets to Ukraine.