British Sky Sabre air-defence system to stay in Poland till year-end
Sky Sabre, a British air-defence system deployed in Poland, will stay in the country until the end of the year, Poland's defence minister announced on Wednesday.
Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz and his UK counterpart, Grant Shapps, met on Wednesday at a training ground in Orzysz, north-eastern Poland, where Nato's Dragon-24 military exercises are being conducted.
The Polish defence minister told a press conference he had received good news from Shapps.
"Great Britain is a cast-iron ally of Poland; the (British - PAP) minister has declared that the Sky Sabre anti-aircraft and anti-missile system will remain in Poland for longer," Kosiniak-Kamysz said. "It was supposed to be here until the end of March this year, but there has been a decision to maintain it until the end of the year."
Kosiniak-Kamysz described Sky Sabre as a "fundamental issue," explaining that it helped safeguard the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport in south-eastern Poland, through which military and humanitarian aid is transported to Ukraine.
"The security of the eastern flank is very important to us; we cannot do it alone, we always count on our allies," he said, going on to thank the UK, and Shapps personally, for supporting Poland's security.
Grant Shapps, UK secretary of state for defence, told a joint press conference with Kosiniak-Kamysz in Orzysz said he was "delighted" that the Sky Sabre missile system will remain in Poland for longer because Poland is "much closer to that frontline than we are."
"And my judgment is that it can be much more help to you at this moment in time than being back home," he added.
Shapps also said that the UK and Poland "have so much in common as two nations who believe in fundamentally the same thing which is freedom and liberty, and that it can never... be taken away by autocrats who share none of our values."
Referring to his recent visit to Ukraine, where he met the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Shapps said that Zelensky was "very clear... about the absolute requirement to make sure that Putin is stopped in his tracks and cannot make further moves West."
According to Schapps, the West and Nato "have all the possible means required to defeat Putin."
"We have a much bigger military when you put Nato together, we have much greater economic power," he said.
However, Schapps added: "We are nonetheless in danger of allowing Putin to make gains in a way which cannot be good for the world, which cannot be good for Europe and certainly can't be good news for Poland." (PAP)
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