Poland is "ready" to arm itself with nuclear weapons as the country is looking to protect itself against a similar fate to Ukraine at the hands of Russia, an expert claims as they warn the US has escalated the situation by giving in to "nuclear blackmail".
Poland's President Andrzej Duda declared on Monday that his country is prepared to receive nuclear weapons on its soil in the event that NATO chooses to bolster its eastern frontier. "If our allies decide to deploy nuclear arms on our territory as part of nuclear sharing, to reinforce NATO's eastern flank, we are ready to do so," he said in an interview with Polish outlet Fakt.
Duda added: “Russia is increasingly militarizing the Königsberg oblast [Kaliningrad]. Recently, it has been relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus." In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned Russia "will take all the necessary retaliatory steps to guarantee our security."
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But Poland's willingness to arm itself with nuclear weapons isn't an escalation, rather insurance to protect itself against Russia, who brandishes atomic bombs as a scare tactic, Keir Giles, an author and researcher studying Russia, claims.
"There is no insurance against nuclear-armed states except being part of a nuclear deterrent yourself," he told The Mirror. Since Ukraine handed over its nuclear weapons and is now at the "mercy" of a nation that has effectively used nuclear intimidation against the US and Germany to "get away with things they should never have been able to", Poland and other nations have taken note, according to Keir.
He claimed the US is partly responsible, adding: "The only logical conclusion is that countries should have access to nuclear deterrents themselves. That is the situation the US has engineered by giving into this nuclear blackmail."
The Russian military expert explained the Kremlin will likely stick to its usual intimidation tactics. “Russia will respond in the usual way. Lots of shouting, lots of threats, lots of nuclear escalation that will get everyone extremely excited. The White House is still transfixed like a deer in the headlights by Russia's nuclear willy waving," he said.
He added: “Poland is throwing pitch fork loads of cash at its defence budget because it knows it has to spend on defending itself as the alternative is facing a future like Ukraine. It's more expensive not to invest in the military so that it acts as a deterrent. It's countries behind Poland that are in some cases are still not getting the message, and that includes the UK.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been threatening the West with nuclear weapons ever since the country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. He even admitted to having atomic weapons hidden in Belarus, which borders NATO members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
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Talks between Poland and the United States about nuclear sharing have been going on, according to Duda, "for some time." "I've already talked about it several times. I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness," he said.
After meeting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in New York recently, Duda expressed his admiration for the outgoing president, stating that they had "a lot of common topics."
“He is a politician with whom I directly cooperated with the United States for four years when he was the president of the United States,” Duda said. “I want to emphasise very strongly that we have been friends since then. I really like talking to him, because he is an extremely interesting personality and has a lot of experience, both political and business.”