Poland wants to ‘earn big money’ on Ukraine – Tusk

Poland intends to profit from Ukraine’s post-conflict reconstruction, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.

During a visit to the Euroterminal Slawkow railway facility in the south of the country on Monday, Tusk pitched the expansion of the site into a key hub for materials bound for Ukraine.

“It is not wrong to say: we want to earn big money for Poland on the reconstruction of Ukraine,” he told reporters. “We want to help, but we also want to earn money on it, and this special hub is needed for this purpose.”

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s top donors since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022, providing over €5.1 billion ($5.7 billion) in aid – more than 70% of it military – according to Germany’s Kiel Institute. Warsaw is also part of the so-called “coalition of the willing,” a group of European nations advocating continued military aid for Kiev. Polish officials have repeatedly urged EU-wide militarization in response to what they describe as a growing threat from Russia – claims that Moscow has repeatedly dismissed as “nonsense” and “fearmongering.”

The Euroterminal Slawkow, established in 2010, lies near the intersection of Pan-European Transport Corridors III and VI. It currently supports regular connections within Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Italy, and several Ukrainian locations. According to Tusk, the terminal has the potential to become a major transshipment center, thanks to its location at the junction of rail lines linking Western Europe with Ukraine and Asia.

Tusk complained about Poland’s minimal role in reconstruction efforts after the Iraq War, insisting that the country will not be sidelined again.

“It cannot be like it used to be… where everyone got involved, including Poland, and then the bigger players made money on the reconstruction, and Poland was left out in the cold,” he said.

“If we are talking about tens, hundreds of billions of zloty that the world, Europe, Poland, Ukraine will spend on the reconstruction, then among other things we are expanding this logistics hub… so that Poland can make money on it,” he concluded.

The World Bank estimates that Ukraine’s recovery could cost more than $500 billion over the next decade. Some EU countries, including Poland, have suggested using frozen Russian sovereign assets to fund the effort. Others, however, have warned that doing so without clear legal grounds could set a dangerous precedent and discourage global investment in Europe. Moscow has condemned the proposed move as “theft” and threatened to retaliate against Western investments in Russia.