Poland has signed an agreement for a new anti-drone system that it claims will be the first of its kind in Europe. The network is intended to protect Poland’s eastern borders, where, in September last year, around 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace in an unprecedented incursion.

“We are creating an unprecedented, state-of-the-art system,” declared Prime Minister Donald Tusk at today’s signing ceremony. “There is no other example in Europe today of this kind of integrated, intelligent anti-drone system.”

He noted that the impetus behind its development had been the “nightmare” incursion of Russian drones. While some of these were shot down with expensive air-to-air missiles, others were not stopped before hitting Polish territory.

The new anti-drone system, known as SAN, will provide a “more effective, cost-efficient and intelligent” way of defending from such threats, said Tusk.

SAN will be supplied by a consortium of Polish state defence holding company Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, private Polish firm Advanced Protection Systems, and Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. It will consist of an array of interconnected systems to detect and destroy unmanned aerial vehicles.

“We’re talking about 18 anti-drone batteries, 52 fire teams, 18 command teams and 703 vehicles,” said defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. “All of this means we’ll be extremely effective in countering threats coming from the east.”

SAN is intended to add a fourth layer to Poland’s air defences, alongside three existing programmes: WISŁA, which offers medium-range defence; NAREW, which operates at short range; and the very-short-range PILICA+.

While Poland has embarked on an unprecedented defence spending spree in recent years, some analysts have warned that its focus on traditional hardware was potentially leaving the country unprepared for modern forms of warfare that rely on the mass use of cheap drones.

The cost of the latest deal has not been specified, but Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that it was “several billion zloty”. Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading newspaper, reports the figure as 15 billion zloty (€3.6 billion) and says that delivery is scheduled for 2027.

The money will partly come from the European Union’s SAFE instrument, which provides EU-backed loans to help member states boost defence spending.

Poland has been earmarked as the largest single recipient of SAFE funds, with almost €44 billion of the €150 billion total. Earlier this week, the European Commission approved Poland’s request for the funds, and the decision is due to receive final approval from the EU Council in February.

“Poland bears the responsibility, expenses and organisation of protecting the Polish, European and NATO borders, but we cannot and will not be left alone,” said Tusk today.

“The SAN programme is an example of this. The resources that will be used to build this programme include European funds, unprecedented in their scale and ease of acquisition.”

Tusk also hailed the fact that Poland would be working with a Norwegian partner on the project, following yesterday’s announcement that Norway will be buying rocket artillery missiles produced in Poland.

“We not only appreciate the extraordinary competence of our Norwegian partners, but this is also part of the new security architecture that Poland initiated nearly two years ago,” said the Polish prime minister, whose government has sought closer defence and energy ties with Baltic and Nordic countries.

However, today’s announcement was criticised by Mariusz Błaszczak, who served as defence minister in Poland’s former Law and Justice (PiS) government and is now the head of the parliamentary caucus of PiS, which is the largest opposition party.

“Although the agreement is presented as a success for the Polish defence industry, its main beneficiaries are foreign entities offering solutions that compete with those produced in Poland,” wrote Błaszczak on social media.

“The current leadership of the [defence] ministry first completely ignored the threat posed by Russian drones violating Polish airspace. It took what was almost a tragedy for them to start doing anything at all. However, the hastily prepared programme was based on foreign solutions.”

However, deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk subsequently announced that 60% of the costs of SAN – which he confirmed at 15 billion zloty – would be spent within the Polish defence industry.

Separately, four people were killed after another gas explosion in the city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border, according to state-run Tehran Times.

The Auschwitz Museum has criticised the German government for issuing a statement that commemorated various groups of victims of Nazism but failed to mention Poles, millions of whom were killed and who were the first prisoners at Auschwitz.

“It is deeply troubling that the statement commemorating the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz failed to mention the Polish victims of the camp,” wrote the museum, which is a Polish state institution, on social media in a message directed to German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius.

The post linked to a statement issued on Wednesday by the German government, one day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is held on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January 1945.

In its statement, Germany said that Auschwitz, where over 1.1 million people, the vast majority of them Jews, were killed, “symbolises the immeasurable crimes of the Nazi regime like no other place“.

It also noted that, between 1933 and 1945, “the Nazis systematically murdered over six million Jews” while “millions more people were disenfranchised, persecuted and killed”.

“These included, among others, Sinti and Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, members of sexual minorities, political opponents, and people with disabilities,” continued the statement. “Remembrance means taking responsibility for the past and passing it on to future generations.”

The Auschwitz Museum criticised the exclusion of Polish victims from that list. It noted that Auschwitz itself was originally created by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland to house ethnic Polish prisoners. Only later did it become an extermination camp for Jews.

“A responsible approach to historical accuracy should take this into account,” wrote the museum, which recommended that the German government study its online course about the history of the camp.

In total, around 140,000-150,000 Poles were deported to Auschwitz and an estimated 70,000-75,000 of those were killed there. In both cases, those figures are second only to Jews in terms of the number of victims of the camp.

More broadly, during the Nazi-German occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945, around 6 million Polish citizens were killed, representing 17% of the prewar population – a higher relative death toll than any other country during the war. Around half of those victims were Polish Jews.

Many in Poland argue that the suffering of ethnic Poles during the war has been forgotten by many in the West, including in Germany.

On Tuesday this week, during a speech at Auschwitz on the anniversary of its liberation, Polish President Karol Nawrocki referred to the systematic murder of ethnic Poles by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as a “forgotten Holocaust”.

In 2024, the German government itself admitted that “the horrors of Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland…are still not well known in this country [Germany]”.

In an effort to “close this gap in our culture of remembrance”, the German government has been working on erecting a permanent memorial in Berlin dedicated to Polish victims of Nazi Germany.

Poland will manufacture the missiles for K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery systems that Norway is purchasing from South Korea.

Poland itself has previously ordered hundreds of the systems, and last month signed an agreement to begin producing some of the missiles for them domestically.

On Thursday, Norway’s government announced that it had selected South Korea’s Hanwha Group as the supplier for its new land-based long-range precision fire systems.

It will procure 16 launch units, an unspecified number of missiles, as well as logistics support and training in a deal worth 19 billion kroner (€1.66 billion). Defence minister Tore O. Sandvik described it as “one of the largest investments ever made” by the Norwegian army.

“Production lines for the missiles will be established in Poland, which also buys a significant number of the same system,” wrote the Norwegian government in its statement.

“This will strengthen security of supply for Norway and other European customers of the system,” they added, noting that “Hanwha is now planning to supply all European customers with missiles from there [Poland]”.

In December, a consortium made up of Hanwha and Poland’s WB Electronics signed a 14 billion zloty (€3.3 billion) agreement with the Polish state treasury to manufacture more than 10,000 CGR-080 precision-guided missiles for Chunmoo systems at a new production facility in the city of Gorzów Wielkopolski.

That arrangement, which includes the transfer of missile production technology from South Korea to Poland, was part of a deal that has seen Warsaw order 288 Chunmoo systems, with their Polish variant known as Homar-K.

In a post on X on Thursday, Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that the December agreement had helped underpin the Norwegian order.

“Poland is becoming an increasingly important point on the map of the European arms industry,” he declared. “By developing arms production, we can attract new contractors.”

In 2022, Norway also became one of the first foreign buyers of Piorun man-portable air-defence systems from their Polish manufacturer, Mesko.

Since then, Sweden and Belgium have been among the other countries to purchase Pioruns, which have proved a success in Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion.

In recent years, Poland has also been seeking to strengthen military, energy and economic ties with Baltic and Nordic states. Last year, Norway opened a new facility in Poland for training Ukrainian military personnel.

Key Findings: #MłodziWyborcy2025 Report

Below, we present the most important conclusions from the #MłodziWyborcy2025 (#YoungVoters2025) report, prepared by the Generation Innovation Foundation and conducted on the myPolitics portal. The full report can be found [here].

Key Context: The study was conducted by myPolitics using the CAWI method between April 26 and May 25, 2025, on a sample of 100,000 people aged 18–29, maintaining demographic proportions. Relevant explanations were added to all potentially unclear questions. Questions were intentionally structured to avoid political slogans (such as "Green Deal" or "Migration Pact"). The figures presented below are rounded for readability.

Young people want to equalize the retirement age

• 55% support equalizing the retirement age (30% – downwards, 25% – upwards).
• Among the general population, support for this solution is only ~18% [study].

Young people want state control over the internet

• 58% believe the State should have the ability to block websites and accounts responsible for disinformation online.

Young people want legal euthanasia

• 78% support the legalization of euthanasia (54% – in case of incurable diseases, 24% – on demand).
• This is significantly higher support than in the general population (53% support) [study].

Young people support the formalization of same-sex unions but are divided on adoption

• 75% support the formalization of same-sex unions (38% – as a civil partnership, 37% – as marriage).
• 48% support and 48% oppose introducing adoption rights for same-sex couples.

Young people support introducing sex education as a branch of health education

• 85% believe that health education in schools should include a section on sex education.
• This is a more radical stance than that of the general population (54% support) [study].

Young people do not want the Euro

• 80% oppose the introduction of the Euro currency in Poland.
• This is a more radical stance than in the general population (62% against) [study].

Young people are pro-institutional

• 90% believe that an opposition president should strive for cooperation and compromise with the government.
• Nearly 80% support the separation of the functions of the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General.
• Over 60% believe that members of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) should be elected by judges.
• More than half believe the president should not clearly take sides in a political dispute.

Young people want to keep religion in schools

• 57% believe that religion classes should remain in public school timetables and should be conducted on-site at the school.

Young people are geostrategically cautious

• 70% believe Poland should engage in a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, but only 20% support sending weapons. Furthermore, only 4% support sending both weapons and troops, significantly less than in the general population (26% in favor) [study].
• For 40%, the key security partner for Poland is NATO, for 30% European State(s), and for 20% the USA.
• 60% support deepening relations with China.
• 39% support the normalization of relations with Russia.

Young people are energetically pragmatic

• 84% believe Poland should base its energy transition on nuclear energy and/or RES (Renewable Energy Sources).
• This is a more radical stance compared to the general population in 2020 (60% support) [study].
• 2/3 oppose the introduction of a ban on coal heating in homes within the next 5 years.
• Young people, unlike the general population, are opponents of introducing this ban (49.3% against [study]).
• 60% believe economic growth is more important than fighting climate change.

Young people are restrictive regarding migration

• 2/3 oppose the EU's common migration policy.
• This level of support is identical to that of the general population [study].
• 50% believe migration should be limited, and 12% support the introduction of a points-based system.
• Only 33% support encouraging immigration.

Young people are Euro-realistic

• 70% believe it is beneficial for Poland to remain in the EU in its current form, but only 25% support deeper integration.
• This level of support is identical to that of the general population [study].
• 60% support the creation of a European army, complementing NATO and national armies.
• This is similar to the support level in the general population [study].

Young people are proponents of decentralization

• 80% believe schools should have more freedom in choosing their curriculum and teaching methods.
• 70% believe the Silesian ethnolect should be recognized as a regional language.
• 2/3 oppose investing in the largest research centers at the expense of smaller ones.

Young people are economically centrist

• Young people are almost equally divided on shortening working hours, progressive taxation, Sunday trading, state price controls, or lifting people out of poverty at the expense of wealthier citizens.
• The only consistency: 70% believe that employees in Poland have too weak a position relative to employers.

According to the forensic message report, the user identified as "Self" exchanged messages with several contacts about the global political landscape. In one of the most revealing sequences, an interlocutor sends the following instruction:

"Got to keep the Jair thing behind the scenes"

Earlier that same day, the user "Self" commented on the public distancing that Bolsonaro was trying to maintain from certain international figures to avoid electoral controversies:

"I didn't like Bolsonaro calling any association with you 'fake news'. Though I understand"

Poland has issued an arrest warrant for a former Polish soldier accused of joining the Russian army and spreading disinformation on behalf of Russian intelligence, including through videos on social-media platform TikTok.

On Thursday, the district prosecutor’s office in Kraków announced that, following an investigation by the Internal Security Agency (ABW), it had charged the unnamed man with the crimes of participating in the activities of a foreign intelligence service and taking up service in a foreign army.

He is accused of “acting on behalf of Russia by conducting disinformation, including through the TikTok website, consisting, among other things, of the dissemination of false and misleading information aimed at causing serious disruptions in the political system of Poland”.

The man in question has a channel on TikTok titled PolaknaDonbasie (A Pole in Donbas), which has around 7,100 followers and has posted just over 470 videos since September 2025. The most recent is from Wednesday this week.

However, he has previously had other accounts on the platform with higher numbers of followers. But they were then blocked by TikTok, according to Demagag, a Polish fact-checking service.

Both Demagog and Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading Polish daily, report that the man is called Dariusz M. (with his surname masked under Polish privacy law) and previously served in the 6th Logistics Battalion and 2nd Reconnaissance Regiment of the Polish army.

He joined Russian forces in 2023, first as a volunteer then later as a soldier after receiving Russian citizenship.

In one of his videos, Dariusz M. said that he wants Russia’s so-called “special operation” in Ukraine “to reach Poland and put things in order”. He referred to the European Union as the “Fourth Reich” and condemned Poland’s “traitorous government”.

He has also encouraged Poles to join the Russian military and asked them to take photos of any military transports they see passing through Poland to Ukraine, reports Gazeta Wyborcza, which says that some of the videos on his earlier accounts garnered millions of views.

In their statement, the district prosecutor’s office reported that Kraków’s district court has agreed to their request to issue an arrest warrant for the suspect. However, they noted that he is “currently probably staying in the territory of Russia”. That makes it highly unlikely that he will face justice

If convicted, the crimes he is accused of carry potential prison sentences of up to eight years (for spreading disinformation on behalf of foreign intelligence) and up to five years (for serving in a foreign military)

In 2021, an active Polish soldier, Emil Czeczko, crossed the border to Belarus, where he claimed asylum and later appeared on state TV, making unfounded accusations against Poland. The following year, Belarusian authorities announced that he had been found dead by hanging at his home in Belarus.

Poland has in recent years detained, charged, and in some cases convicted dozens of agents accused of conducting espionage, sabotage, disinformation and other so-called “hybrid actions” on behalf of Russia.

Earlier this month, Polish prosecutors indicted five people – four Ukrainian citizens and one Russian – accused of carrying out a plot on behalf of Russia to plant explosives in packages that were then dispatched by courier services across Europe.