POLAND: Supporting Ukraine & more – 2nd Oct 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 2nd of October. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off with updates on foreign affairs. On Friday, the 26th of September, during a meeting with Andrius Kubilius, the EU Defence Commissioner, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland’s Defence Minister, expressed his support for the EU’s plan to set up a drone wall along the eastern border.

The goal is to combine national defenses, detect and stop drones that could enter EU airspace, and show Russia that the EU is ready to protect its territory and respond to threats.

Kubilius said protecting the area is a top priority, and EU members involved will have coordinators who will manage operations and learn from Ukraine about drone technology, counter-drone tactics, and integrating drones into defense systems.

The EU will fund the plan with grants and present a full roadmap at the next European Council meeting. The drone wall forms part of a larger security effort called Eastern Flank Watch.

On that note about the military, on Wednesday, the 1st of October, Camp Jomsborg, a new Norwegian-led training center for Ukrainian troops, opened in Nowa Dęba-Lipa, a town in southeastern Poland. It can train up to 1,200 soldiers at a time with instructors from allied countries.

Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said 250 Norwegian troops are already at the base, with more rotations coming next year. Estonia has sent soldiers too, and other allies plan to join.

Kosiniak-Kamysz stressed the support goes both ways, as allies are learning from Ukraine’s battlefield experience, especially in drones and counter-drone tactics.

More on security, as on Monday, the 29th, the foreign ministers of Poland, France and Germany, met in Warsaw with their Ukrainian counterpart to show their support for Ukraine. They said Russia’s recent provocations, such as drone incursions into Polish, Estonian, and Romanian airspace, prove that Russia wants a fight, not peace.

They talked about strengthening NATO’s eastern defenses, especially air protection, and agreed to keep sanctions on Russia tight until it pulls out of Ukraine. France and Germany have already sent fighter jets to help Poland’s air defense.

The ministers stressed that NATO and EU countries are united and ready to defend every inch of their land and also promised more financial and military help for Ukraine.

Following that, on Tuesday, the 30th, Poland’s Foreign Ministry hailed the US peace plan for Gaza.

The plan, which President Trump developed with advice from Israel and Arab countries, calls for a ceasefire, a hostage swap, more humanitarian aid, and the rebuilding of Gaza. Poland called it a bold and realistic move to end the fighting and urged Hamas to accept it and free all hostages within seventy-two hours.

The plan temporarily removes Hamas from power, sets up a short-term Palestinian government to run Gaza, brings in international peacekeepers to maintain order, and eventually hands control to the new Palestinian Authority.

It also makes sure no one is forced to leave Gaza and that Israel won’t take over the territory again.

Speaking of Gaza, on Wednesday, the 1st, the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, in southern Poland, began its academic year, but a pro-Palestinian protest disrupted the professors’ inauguration procession.

Protesters carried banners, chanted slogans, and urged the university to cut ties with Israeli institutions and condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza.

They dismissed the Senate’s earlier resolution, which criticized both Israel and Hamas, calling for a ceasefire. Activists said that the statement was too neutral and avoided naming Israel’s actions as crimes.

They promised to keep protesting until the university takes a clearer, tougher stance.

Meanwhile, in politics, on Monday the 29th, the police finally brought Zbigniew Ziobro, the former Minister of Justice, before the parliamentary commission investigating the Pegasus spyware.

The commission is looking into how the government, intelligence services, and police used Pegasus between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty-three and who greenlit the purchase, which cost twenty-five million zloty, about six million dollars, from the Justice Fund.

The police tried to bring Ziobro in for questioning multiple times, but they were only successful in their ninth attempt. Even though he kept saying the commission wasn’t legal, he answered their questions, admitting he pushed for Poland to buy Pegasus, and said it made the country no longer defenseless, without ruling out that it might have been used on politicians from his own party.

Also, on Monday the 29th, Szymon Hołownia, the founder of the Polska twenty fifty party and Marshal of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, confirmed he’s officially applied for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees position.

After stepping down as the Sejm speaker and leaving his Poland twenty fifty movement, he’s ready to step away from Polish politics following two failed presidential runs, including a poor twenty twenty-five campaign where he got just five percent of the vote.

He’s been reaching out to influential Polish politicians, including President Nawrocki, to gain support.

The job could bring in about 14,000 dollars a month, which is more than twice what he earns now.

Switching gears to new policies. On Wednesday the 1st. Customers started to pay an extra fifty groszy, around twelve US cents, for plastic bottles and cans, and starting the 1st of January, twenty twenty-six, they will have to pay one złoty, about twenty-five US cents, for reusable glass bottles.

Anyone can reclaim the money without a receipt, but only if the packaging isn’t crushed and the barcode is readable. Big stores must accept all deposit packaging. However, smaller shops may not always accept returns. This will depend on staff availability and storage space.

Because collection machines are expensive, some chains like Rossmann and Leroy Merlin will stop selling deposit drinks.

For consumers, this means higher shop prices and possibly higher waste collection fees, since cities raise collection fees to make up for income lost from selling and recycling bottles and cans. Still, the system helps Poland meet EU targets of collecting seventy-seven percent of plastic bottles by twenty twenty-five and ninety percent by twenty twenty-nine.

On another new policy, on Tuesday, the 30th, Poland rolled out new rules ending free healthcare for adult Ukrainian refugees, with the changes taking effect on the 1st of October.

Ukrainian refugees over eighteen who reside in Poland legally but don’t pay health or social insurance now have to pay for things like medicine, dental care, rehab, specialist treatments, and medical devices. Kids under eighteen are still covered, and anyone who started treatment before the rules changed can finish it, even if they turn eighteen along the way.

Adults now have to pay full price for prescriptions, and if a doctor gives them discounted medicine even though they’re not eligible, the doctor could face fines or other legal consequences. The system that checks healthcare eligibility has been updated to separate adults from kids so the new regulation can come into force.

The government says they had to do this because the healthcare system couldn’t keep providing free care to all adult refugees without impacting services for Polish residents.

On Friday the 26th, Poland’s parliament approved a law banning people from keeping dogs chained up all the time, answering years of calls from animal rights groups. The Civic Coalition introduced the law, and it will take effect a year after publication.

Owners can still tie dogs up briefly, like for training or safety, and the law sets minimum kennel sizes based on the dog’s weight, requiring roofs and solid floors.

PM Tusk praised the change, while animal rights groups welcomed the chaining ban but urged stricter rules for kennel sizes, shelter oversight, sterilization, and microchipping.

And to close this edition, on Tuesday, the 30th, Tusk announced that Poland will get two new ships for its maritime universities, with the government funding 100 million zloty, about twenty-eight million dollars.

The Maritime University of Szczecin, a city in northwestern Poland, will receive a modern training and research vessel to replace the twenty-eight-year-old Navigator, while the Maritime University in Gdynia, in northern Poland, will get a three-masted sailing ship to replace the Dar Młodzieży and train 120 cadets at once.

They expect both ships by twenty twenty-nine.

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

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