Category Archives: Donald Tusk

Russian drone incursion into Poland ‘was Kremlin test on Nato’

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Polish minister says Moscow sought to gauge reaction without starting war as Romania reports new incursion

Poland’s foreign minister has said the Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace was an attempt by the Kremlin to test Nato’s reactions by incremental escalations without prompting a full-scale response, as Romania became the second Nato country to report an incursion in a matter of days.

Radosław Sikorski confirmed that while the drones that entered Poland last week were capable of carrying ammunition, they were not loaded with explosives. “Interestingly, they were all duds, which suggests to me that Russia tried to test us without starting a war,” Sikorski told the Guardian in Kyiv.

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Europe’s leaders raise pressure on Trump to involve Ukraine in Putin talks

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Move comes as Germany warns White House against any deal hatched ‘over heads of Europeans and Ukrainians’

Europe’s leaders have raised the pressure on Donald Trump to involve Ukraine in a planned summit with Vladimir Putin, as Germany warned the White House against any deal hatched “over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians”.

Speaking before a bilateral meeting expected to take place between the US and Russian leaders on Friday in Alaska, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he hoped and assumed that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would also be involved.

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‘Freeze’ in Ukraine war may be close, says Tusk, as US and Russia plan talks

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Polish PM makes remarks after speaking with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, amid White House efforts to end the conflict

A “freeze” in the war in Ukraine may be close, the Polish prime minister said on Friday, as the White House and the Kremlin push forward with discussions for a high-level summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in the coming days.

Donald Tusk’s remarks came after he spoke with the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has communicated with Trump and European leaders in recent days as the White House continues to try to broker an end to the three-and-a-half-year war.

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Populist Nawrocki’s triumph threatens Poland’s place at Europe’s top table

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Victory of radical-right candidate could seriously destabilise the coalition government of pro-EU prime minister Donald Tusk

The victory margin of the nationalist Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential elections may have been wafer-thin, but it marks a huge upheaval in the country’s political landscape whose impact will be felt not just in Warsaw but across the EU.

Backed by the previous ruling conservative Law & Justice (PiS) party and, openly, by Donald Trump’s Maga movement, Nawrocki, a radical-right historian, defeated his liberal rival, the capital’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, by 50.89% to 49.11%.

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Presidential vote likely to determine Poland’s place on the EU stage

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Close-run race between pro-EU and nationalist candidates pits liberal vision against a radical-right, EU-critical stance

Poland’s presidential election runoff could have far-reaching implications for its place in Europe – either cementing the country’s hard-won seat at the EU’s top table, or heralding a return to altogether trickier times.

The mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, faces off against the historian Karol Nawrocki on Sunday in a neck-and-neck race, pitting a liberal vision of Poland at the heart of European policymaking against a nationalist, radical-right, EU-critical stance.

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Polish election: Tusk party urged to show it is not ‘deceiving women’ on abortion

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Five years after near-total ban on abortion, campaigners say Sunday’s elections will be critical to see if promised change happens

Poland’s presidential elections are a “historic, groundbreaking” chance for Donald Tusk’s centrist party to show it was not trying to “deceive women” when it promised to change some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, campaigners have said.

Voters across Poland will head to the polls on Sunday in the first round of the elections to replace Andrzej Duda, the current president who is aligned with the former rightwing government and has veto power over legislation.

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Vladimir Putin rejects ceasefire ultimatum proposed by European leaders

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Leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland told Russian president to accept unconditional 30-day ceasefire by Monday or face increased sanctions and weapons transfers to Ukraine

Vladimir Putin has rejected an ultimatum by European leaders to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine or face increased sanctions, but has proposed holding direct negotiations with Kyiv this week.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland told the Russian president either to sign up to an unconditional ceasefire by Monday or face increased sanctions and weapons transfers to Ukraine.

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Leaders of UK, France, Germany and Poland to visit Ukraine in joint show of support

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Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk to make symbolic visit day after Putin parade

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland are due in Kyiv on Saturday for a symbolic visit to Ukraine, a day after Vladimir Putin hosted a set-piece military parade on Red Square. The visit comes as the US warned of intelligence about a big impending air attack on Ukraine.

Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk are expected to arrive in Kyiv early on Saturday and will meet the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a show of support for Ukraine, Downing Street said in a statement issued late on Friday.

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Slovakian and Serbian leaders defy EU to attend Russian military parade

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Robert Fico and Aleksandar Vučić accept Vladimir Putin’s invitation to attend Victory Day celebrations

Despite warnings from European Union officials, Slovakia’s Moscow-friendly prime minister, Robert Fico, shook hands with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin before becoming the only EU leader to attend Russia’s 9 May parade of military forces waging war on Ukraine.

The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, whose country aspires to join the 27-nation union, also accepted the Russian president’s invitation to attend the annual Victory Day celebrations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in the second world war.

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Tusk calls for respect between allies after US-Poland spat over Starlink satellites

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Polish prime minister tells ‘friends’ to cast aside arrogance after his foreign minister and Marco Rubio trade barbs online

Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, has called on “friends” to respect their allies and not be arrogant in a post on X that mentioned nobody by name but was published a day after an extraordinary social media spat between top officials in the US and Poland over Starlink satellites.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, accused Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, of “making things up” and suggested on Sunday he was ungrateful, in a strong rebuke after Sikorski said Ukraine may need an alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service if it becomes unreliable.

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‘Watershed moment’: EU leaders agree plan for huge rise in defence spending

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Leaders endorse von der Leyen proposal but show of unity over Ukraine is marred by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán

European leaders holding emergency talks in Brussels have agreed on a massive increase to defence spending, amid a drive to shore up support for Ukraine after Donald Trump halted US military aid and intelligence sharing.

But the show of unity was marred by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, failing to endorse an EU statement on Ukraine pushing back against Trump’s Russia-friendly negotiating stance.

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Starmer urges world leaders to ‘double down’ on support for Ukraine

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PM stressed shared ‘unbreakable commitment to Nato and Ukraine’ with Poland in meeting with Donald Tusk

Keir Starmer has urged world leaders to “double down” in their efforts to support Ukraine during a visit to Poland, days before Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency risks jeopardising international solidarity on the issue.

Speaking alongside the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, after the pair discussed a proposed defence-focused treaty, Starmer dodged questions on the possible impact of Trump, but insisted the only way forward was “peace on Ukraine’s terms”.

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Donald Tusk’s Polish revival masks deeper divisions with German neighbours

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Warsaw’s return to the European mainstream with presidency of the EU Council may not be quite what it seems

Germany’s chancellor appears to be heading for defeat; France’s president is mired in crisis. But while Europe’s traditional power duo are in the doldrums, there is a strong, stable and pro-EU leader east of Paris and Berlin – Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk.

For European officials, it’s a helpful gift of the calendar that Poland takes charge of the EU Council rotating presidency from 1 January.

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Poland prepares for election crucial for ruling coalition and progressive reform

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Next May’s presidential vote is effectively referendum on whether Donald Tusk’s government can rule freely

Donald Tusk’s government in Poland is gearing up for a crucial presidential election next year, after a first year in office that has been marked by clashes with the current president, Andrzej Duda, as well as splits within the ruling coalition.

Tusk took office as prime minister last December, ending eight years of rule by the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The change of government prompted celebrations from progressive Poles and relief in Brussels, where PiS had put Poland on a course of conflict with European bodies.

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EU’s weak or distracted governments make unity of purpose hard to achieve

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Leaders can only spend limited political capital on Euro initiatives while weighed down by domestic troubles

It has become a wry joke in Brussels that the most stable country in the EU is Italy, once infamous for its succession of short-lived governments.

France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz have been humbled by punishing electoral defeats. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, presides over a minority government in a country riven by division after a controversial amnesty bill. In Poland, Donald Tusk enjoys a much stronger position, but grapples with an unwieldy coalition and an opposition-allied president.

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Death toll reaches 16 as ‘dramatic’ flooding in central Europe continues

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Czech Republic, Poland and Austria fear worst may yet be to come as thousands are evacuated to higher ground

The death toll from torrential rain and flooding in central and eastern Europe has risen to at least 16, with several more people missing, as authorities reported deaths in the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria and warned the worst may be to come.

The number of victims in Poland rose to five after a surgeon returning from work drowned in the south-western town of Nysa, where the hospital was evacuated and patients rescued by raft. Four more people had died in the southern towns of Bielsko-Biała and Lądek-Zdrój, firefighters said.

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Germany reintroduces border checks to far-right praise as EU tensions mount

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Olaf Scholz’s government says ‘acute dangers’ led to decision but some EU criticise ‘unacceptable’ decision

Germany has reintroduced temporary checks at all nine of its land borders in a move that has drawn criticism from several of its European partners but praise from the far right.

The embattled coalition government in Berlin said last week that checks already being carried out on its borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland would be extended to France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.

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German border plan to stop ‘irregular migration’ unacceptable, says Tusk

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Polish PM calls for urgent consultations with European neighbours over controls he says will break European law

The Polish government is accusing Germany of acting unilaterally and unfairly over its “unacceptable” plans to introduce temporary controls into in the passport-free Schengen zone at all the country’s nine land borders, in what Warsaw says is a contravention of European law.

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said Germany had introduced a “de facto suspension of the Schengen agreement on a large scale” after the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, announced Berlin’s decision to confront what she called “irregular migration” by introducing spot controls along Germany’s 2,300-mile (3,700km) frontier after a recent spate of suspected Islamist attacks.

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World leaders react to Biden’s decision to exit presidential race

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Polish prime minister Donald Tusk and UK PM Keir Starmer among US allies to pay tribute to US president’s decades of public service

Leaders from around the world have begun to react to Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election this year, endorsing vice-president Kamala Harris in the most unorthodox US presidential campaign in generations.

US allies largely offered tributes to Biden’s work over decades of government service, discussing his work as a partner in international security, without addressing the tense political debate still unfolding in the US.

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Polish border ‘pushbacks’ back in spotlight after pregnant woman’s ordeal

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Activists say little has changed in treatment of migrants and refugees under Donald Tusk’s new government

The case of a woman from Eritrea who was forced to give birth alone in the forested border area between Poland and Belarus has raised questions about the new Polish government’s response to the continuing humanitarian crisis at the border between the two countries.

The previous, rightwing government of the Law and Justice party (PiS) used the migration issue to score political points and was accused of encouraging rights abuses by guards along the border, with reports of frequent violent “pushbacks” of people to Belarus.

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