POLAND: PM Visits Kyiv & more – 15th May 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 15th of May twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off with foreign affairs. On Saturday, the 11th, Donald Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister, along with the British Prime Minister, the French President, and the German Chancellor, met with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, in Kyiv.

It was the first time these four leaders visited Ukraine together. They traveled by train from Poland after meeting in Rzeszów, in southeastern Poland, the night before.

The visit, meant to show European unity and solidarity with Ukraine, came after Russian President Putin's speech during the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, where he justified the war in Ukraine, painting it as a fight against Western aggression and fascism.

The leaders discussed a proposal for a thirty-day ceasefire and the possibility of new sanctions if Russia disagrees. They also talked about creating a European security force for Ukraine after the war.

However, not everyone supports EU integration. On Saturday, the 11th, thousands of people, mostly from the nationalist opposition, gathered in Warsaw to protest against illegal immigration and the pro-European government.

They organized the rally, calling for Poland to reject the EU migration pact— a plan to make EU countries share responsibility for asylum seekers— and to bring back full border control with Germany.

They waved national flags and supported Karol Nawrocki, the nationalist presidential candidate from the Law and Justice party.

Migration issues heavily shape the election, as Poland hosts about one million refugees from Ukraine.

On that note about presidential elections, on Monday, the 12th, Opinia24, a Polish public opinion research company, published results of a poll showing that Rafal Trzaskowski, the pro-EU candidate from the Civic Coalition and mayor of Warsaw, is currently leading the presidential race with thirty percent support.

His main rival, Karol Nawrocki, stands in second place with twenty-five percent, but it looks like not all Law and Justice voters are behind him yet.

Slawomir Mentzen from the Confederation Liberty and Independence party follows with thirteen percent, while the rest of the candidates trail behind.

The election will take place on the 18th of May, and if no one wins over half the votes, the top two will see each other again in a runoff on the 1st of June.

Still on the elections, on Wednesday, the 14th, the Scientific and Academic Computer Network (or NASK), Poland’s cyber-security team, said that they found some Facebook ads that looked like they were paid for from abroad.

The ads boosted one candidate and threw shade at leading rivals, including Rafał Trzaskowski and Karol Nawrocki.

NASK asked Meta to shut down the accounts and told Poland’s security agency to track where the money came from. Meanwhile, the police teamed up with Europol, the EU’s crime-fighting team, to check if there was a violation of any election rules.

While Meta checks the accounts, NASK asked people to report any political ads that don’t clearly say who paid for them.

Shifting gears, on Tuesday the 13th, Poland shut down the Russian consulate in Kraków, in southern Poland, after finding proof that Russian spies were behind a massive fire at Marywilska forty-four shopping center in Warsaw on the 12th of May, last year, which destroyed about 1,400 shops.

Polish investigators had been digging into the case for months, with over 150 people involved in the probe. They said Russia recruited some people through social media and offered money for sabotage.

Russia now only has its embassy in Warsaw and a consulate in Gdańsk, a port city in the north, since Poland already closed the one in Poznań, in the west, in October twenty twenty-four due to other hostile actions, including earlier arson attempts in Wrocław, in southwestern Poland.

Russia condemned Poland's move and threatened with retaliation, which might mean closing the Polish embassy in Moscow or consulates in Irkutsk and Kaliningrad.

Since we mentioned Russia, on Monday, the 12th, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland’s Defense Minister, met with Theo Francken, Belgium’s Defense Chief, at the Mesko defense plant, in central Poland, to talk about boosting military ties due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

They discussed ways to improve defense cooperation and signed a letter to make their closer military collaboration official.

Belgium is interested in buying Poland’s Piorun man-portable air defense systems, which Ukraine found effective against Russian drones and aircraft. The launchers are small, easy to carry, and can be operated by just one soldier.

On another front, on Tuesday, the 13th, EU energy ministers had an informal meeting in Warsaw to talk about how to keep the Baltic Sea’s energy infrastructure safe and support Ukraine’s energy system.

Paulina Hennig-Kloska, Poland’s Climate Minister, said EU countries would soon sign a deal to protect energy infrastructure around the Baltic better, because of recent incidents like sabotage of undersea cables and power outages.

The meeting also focused on helping Ukraine and Moldova align with EU energy rules, repairing Ukraine’s damaged system, boosting clean energy use, cutting fossil fuels, and strengthening Europe’s power grid after Spain’s blackout.

Dan Jørgensen, the EU Energy Commissioner, said that the Union is done with Russian oil and gas imports, and he dismissed rumors of any US-Russia energy deals.

On another cooperation, on Friday, the 10th, PM Tusk met with Emmanuel Macron, the French President, in Nancy, in northeastern France, to sign a new friendship deal, bringing their countries closer together. They agreed to help each other out if there's ever an outside threat, including providing military support, and also to work more closely on civilian nuclear projects.

Tusk said it was a big, historic step forward, while Macron called it the beginning of a stronger partnership between Poland and France, aimed at building a more independent Europe.

Some people praised the deal as a step toward stronger EU ties, but others felt that France took the lead, making Poland seem like the junior partner.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the 10th, Maciej Lasek, the Deputy Infrastructure Minister, announced that Warsaw’s Chopin Airport would get a big upgrade to handle more passengers before the new airport near Baranów, central Poland, is ready.

He said the airport’s operator, Polish Airports State Enterprise, would design and implement improvements to manage international traffic better, particularly in the Schengen area. These upgrades include new gates and a terminal expansion. The project will also add more parking places for planes and expand the terminal by fifteen percent.

The construction will start in twenty twenty-six and finish by twenty twenty-nine. The airport should be able to serve up to 30 million passengers a year after the expansion. In twenty twenty-four, it already hit a record with 21.3 million passengers.

Let’s wrap up this edition on a scientific note. On Friday, the 9th, Polish science news portal Nauka w Polsce reported that three universities in Gdańsk developed a new crystal form of chlordiazepoxide, a drug used for anxiety and insomnia.

The new version dissolves better in water, absorbs faster and works more effectively. The researchers combined the drug with saccharin, creating a salt that’s easy and eco-friendly to produce without expensive or toxic chemicals.

People often need higher doses of drugs, because most don’t dissolve well, which can also cause side effects and raise production costs. This new form could lower doses, reduce side effects, and make production cheaper.

However, it’ll still take a few years before this version hits the market, because it has to go through clinical trials first.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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