Only Donald Trump can stop Vladimir Putin, Polish president tells BBC

Donald Trump is the only world leader capable of stopping Vladimir Putin from threatening Europe, according to Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki.

In an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme he said the Russian leader was not to be trusted, but that Europe needed to do everything it could to support President Trump in his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

President Nawrocki was already well-known as a firm supporter of Donald Trump even before he landed in Britain for meetings with PM Sir Keir Starmer and others.

Now, he says that with Vladimir Putin’s Russia threatening his country as well as central and eastern Europe, the US president was the only person who could, as he put it, “solve this problem” – as well as ending the war in Ukraine.

Referring to last September’s mass incursion by Russian drones, when more than 20 uncrewed aircraft crossed into Poland from Belarus and Ukraine, President Nawrocki called it “an extraordinary situation”, adding that “until that time, no Nato member state had experienced a drone attack on that scale”. Russia, he said, was testing Poland’s defences and testing Nato’s solidarity.

The Polish president then thanked Britain for sending over RAF Typhoon jets to help defend his borders. He said Poland had been in a state of hybrid war with Russia since 2021, as it dealt with drones and disinformation.

This Russian grey zone activity showed “we are living in dangerous times”, he added.

He was asked about his friendship with Donald Trump, particularly in the light of the US president’s threats to take over “by any means” the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland, something which has rattled Europe and which threatens to rupture the 77-year old Nato alliance.

The US, he insisted, despite recent statements by US officials to the contrary, was still the guarantor of security in Europe. What Donald Trump was doing on behalf of the Europeans, he said, “deserved support and great respect”. President Nawrocki said he could see Europe “detaching” itself from the United States and said this was good neither for the economic security nor the military security of the European Union.

That still left the awkward question of Greenland. This discussion, he said, should remain a matter between the Danish prime minister and President Trump. Karol Nawrocki was convinced that this question would be resolved through Nato and through dialogue between Denmark and the US.

But President Nawrocki also used this interview to criticise European leaders for, as he put it, being “involved in not so important things, in ideological issues such as green deal for instance, climate policy, migration issues”. Europe, he said, was not building its resilience and security over the years, whereas Poland was now allocating close to 5% of its GDP to defence.

For Britain, though, he had some warm words. Relations between Poland and the UK were “extremely important” and today around one million Poles lived in the UK.

“I would like to express my very deep appreciation for the British soldiers who are stationed in Poland… taking responsibility for Nato’s Eastern flank,” he said. He expressed his hope that, with Poland’s economy growing rapidly, Britain as host of next year’s G20 summit would invite Poland to participate.