February 16, 2026, 11:37 amFebruary 16, 2026, 11:37 am
Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki sees his country threatened by Russia and has therefore spoken out in favor of its own nuclear weapons program.
Karol Nawrocki has been President of Poland since August 2025.Image: keystone
“The path to a Polish nuclear potential – with all respect for international regulations – is the path we should take,” said the right-wing conservative head of state on the Polsatnews television station. In Poland, the president is commander-in-chief of the army.
Poland is a country right on the border of an armed conflict, emphasized Nawrocki with a view to the war in Ukraine. “We know what aggressive and imperial attitude Russia has towards Poland.” He is therefore in favor of increasing his country’s security with a nuclear weapons program. However, he could not say when this would begin. When asked by the moderator whether he feared a reaction from Russia to this step, Nawrocki replied: “Russia can react aggressively to anything.”
The EU and NATO country Poland is one of the closest military and political allies of Ukraine, which is attacked by Russia. With his initiative, Nawrocki goes further than his predecessor Andrzej Duda. He said in the spring of 2024 that Poland was ready for the stationing of US nuclear weapons as part of so-called nuclear sharing, should NATO deem this necessary. NATO said at the time that there were no plans to expand the deployment of nuclear weapons.
The USA has stationed nuclear weapons in several European countries for many decades as part of nuclear sharing. There is no official information about the locations – in addition to Germany, the nuclear weapons are also said to be stored in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Turkey. (sda/dpa)
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