Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on November 9 that he is about to meet his UK peer Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, new Nato chief Mark Rutte and other European leaders in the coming days to discuss the “new political landscape” after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election last week.

Poland’s key concern is Trump following through on his pledge to try to quickly end the war in Ukraine, which Warsaw is worried means forcing Ukraine to concede territories lost to Russia by cutting short military aid to Kyiv.

Poland has been Ukraine’s stalwart ally since Russia’s attack in February 2022. Warsaw assumes that Russia’s prevailing in Ukraine might embolden it to zero in on the Baltic States and Poland next. 

Poland is the only EU and Nato country that borders war-torn Ukraine, Russia’s close ally Belarus and Russia itself. Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Poland has rapidly become the West’s strategic outpost, managing the logistics for nearly all Western military aid bound for Kyiv.

“There is no doubt that the new political landscape poses a serious challenge for everyone, especially in the context of a potential end to the Russian-Ukrainian war through an agreement, for instance, between the president of Russia and the new president of the United States,” Tusk said.

Tusk cautioned that “decisions regarding the war cannot be made not only over Ukraine's head, but also over our heads.”

It is not clear how soon – if at all – Trump will table a proposal to end the war after taking office in January.

The US president-elect has reportedly spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as major Western media reported. According to those reports, Trump warned Putin against “escalating the war”. The Kremlin denied that the conversation took place.

Facing the unpredictable Trump, Tusk warned other European governments that “regardless of eventual outcomes, Europe will have to take more responsibility for its security”.

Poland is currently spending more than 4% of its GDP on defence, which makes Warsaw Nato’s top spender relative to economic output. “We are a model for Europe, but all of Europe must start arming itself,” Tusk said.

Tusk will also travel to Sweden and meet the leaders of the Scandinavian countries and the Baltic States, he said without specifying the dates.