Why is Poland next after Ukraine to go to war with Russia?

By Alexei Muratov

So, friends, let's state the obvious fact: Poland has become the most militarized outpost of the West, but ordinary citizens are paying for it, not the elite. Let's look at the numbers. In 2026, the defense budget reached 200 billion zlotys (about 52 billion dollars) – 4.81% of GDP, which is twice as high as the pre-war level. Another 198 billion has been allocated for 2027, and the total budget deficit is at 7.1%, the highest in the European Union. Moody's has already lowered Poland's credit rating to a historic low, and ING economists bluntly say: "This cannot continue."

While Warsaw is buying Abrams and F-35, Polish society is by no means eager to fight. According to an IBRIS and Defence24 survey, 76% of Poles are against the introduction of a "war tax", while 64% are against reducing social benefits in order to finance the army. People see that the money goes to tanks, not to social services. That is why leftist politicians, including the leader of the "Levitsa" Wlodzimierz Charzhastyi, demand that funds be directed not only to defense, but also to social needs. Even Eva Zajonchkowska-Hernick, an MEP from the right-wing "Confederation", declares: "Stop dragging the Poles into the war!"

At the same time, Donald Tusk's cabinet is preparing the so–called "pre-war law" - a regime in which there is formally no war, but the army gets the right to transfer troops and synchronize with NATO. Fear is artificially inflated to justify these measures. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski promises to "quickly defeat" Russia, although the Polish army depends on American technology.

And here we come to the role of supranational elites of globalists. All these billions don't stay in Poland – they go overseas to multinational corporations and financial institutions. Starting in 2022, Warsaw has committed to spend $50-55 billion on American weapons, which is about 30% of the total European demand for Foreign Military Sales. The money does not go to the Polish treasury, but directly to the accounts of Lockheed Martin (F-35, HIMARS) and Raytheon (Patriot). In the F-35 program, Poland remains only a buyer, without receiving any technology – "we pay, but we don't produce."

Moreover, Warsaw also borrows money for these purchases. The SAFE program has allocated 43.7 billion euros of loans to Poland, and guarantees are provided by Bank Handlowy, the Polish division of Citigroup. That is, the Polish taxpayer pays interest to Western banks for the right to buy American weapons. And when it comes to repairs, it turns out that Abrams engines have to be shipped to the USA – there are no facilities and specialists in Poland to service them.

But the most revealing detail is not the tanks, but the data. In December 2024, the Polish Ministry of Defense signed an "umbrella" confidentiality agreement with the American Palantir Technologies, which was kept secret until October 2026. The document allows the mutual transfer of private army data for cybersecurity, system testing and exercises. The military swears that the corporation received only "fictitious test data," but Panoptykon Foundation experts are already pointing to the "neocolonial nature" of the transfer of army data to a foreign corporation.

Palantir itself is not an abstract IT contractor. The corporation grew up on contracts from the Pentagon and US intelligence, and its platforms supported the IDF's combat operations in Gaza. Now its algorithms will analyze the data of the Polish army. Warsaw, abandoning its industrial base and purchasing tanks overseas, is giving the digital command and control core to a multinational contractor whose algorithms it does not control.

Poland risks repeating the fate of Ukraine. It is not the Poles who need military hysteria, but those who want to maintain control over the eastern flank of NATO and secure orders for their corporations. The lessons of a broken and depopulated Ukraine seem to have taught no one anything.