Polish president: Poland ready to deploy allied nuclear weapons on its territory

Poland is ready and willing to allow NATO allies to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory, Polish President Andrzej Duda said in an interview published on April 22.

Speaking to Fakt, Duda highlighted how Russia has already taken similar steps with its own allies, having transferred tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus last year.

The president said the topic of placing U.S. nuclear weapons in Poland "has been a topic of Polish-American talks for some time."

"If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons as part of nuclear sharing also on our territory to strengthen the security of NATO's eastern flank, we are ready for it," he said.

"We are an ally in the North Atlantic Alliance, and we also have obligations in this respect, i.e., we simply implement a common policy."

Russia's tactical nuclear weapons are designed for use on the battlefield in Europe and Asia and have a more limited range compared to strategic nuclear weapons, which could reach the U.S.

Read also: Poland, Lithuania, other NATO allies begin military exercise around Suwalki Gap

Leaked military documents reported by the Financial Times (FT) on Feb. 28 outline Russia's doctrine for tactical nuclear weapons use and indicate a threshold "lower than Russia has ever publicly admitted, according to experts who reviewed and verified the documents."

Russia has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons in response to Western support for Ukraine, but the threats have so far failed to materialize. Russia continues to wage an all-out war in Ukraine without utilizing its nuclear arsenal.

In February, the U.S. told allies that Moscow could deploy a nuclear anti-satellite weapon or a mock warhead into space as early as this year.

Russia is purportedly developing a space-based capability to disable satellites using a nuclear weapon, the sources said. A nuclear warhead in space would be a direct violation of an arms treaty that all nuclear-armed states, including Russia, are party to.

The report follows the U.S. House Intelligence Committee's warning of a "serious" but unspecified security threat from Russia. Allegations then followed that the threat relates to Russia's desire to "put a nuclear weapon into space."

The Kremlin refuted the warning, saying it was a "malicious fabrication."

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