NUCLEAR FORTRESS
Give us your nukes, Poland urges Trump in plan to turn Europe’s frontline into fortress to face down any Putin invasion
Poland is also looking to conscript its entire adult male population
POLAND has urged Donald Trump to hand over nuclear weapons as it turns itself into Europe's frontline fortress.
Warsaw is preparing to face down any invasion by Vladimir Putin by conscripting every adult male for military training.
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But the Eastern European nation also wants nukes and President Andrzej Duda has now said the US could send some of its arsenal to his country.
Duda told the FT he had discussed moving America's nuclear weapons kept in Western Europe or the US to Poland with Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg.
He said: "I think it’s not only that the time has come, but that it would be safer if those weapons were already here.
"The borders of Nato moved east in 1999, so 26 years later there should also be a shift of the Nato infrastructure east. For me this is obvious.
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"Russia didn’t even hesitate when it moved its nuclear weapons to Belarus. They didn’t ask anyone for permission."
Duda's request is likely to be highly provocative to Moscow, but he believes having nukes in the country would make Poland safer from a Russian invasion.
It comes after Duda made a similar appeal to France - the only EU country to have nukes.
Like Britain, France has one nuclear-armed submarine deployed at all times - ready to fire some of its 290 operational nuclear weapons.
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He said France could possibly extend its nuclear 'umbrella' over Poland, although the French President would still hold the button.
The Russian invasion of Poland has galvanised the country into turning itself into a spiky country the Russian bear could not swallow.
Zelensky warns Putin eyeing FIVE other European countries for invasion if he isn’t stopped dead in Ukraine
Prime Minister Donald Tusk had suggested Poland could even develop its own nuclear weapons, but Duda has poured cold water on the idea saying it would take decades.
Dude tried to get the US to host weapons in Poland in 2022, but the proposal died under Joe Biden's administration.
Poland is now the "model" Nato ally, according to US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.
Duda announced in February the country was planning to spend 4.7 per cent of GDP on defence - the highest of any country, including the US, in the alliance.
Poland is also seriously considering conscripting the male adult population for military training as part of creating a 500,000-strong army that would intimidate Russia.
Trump and Duda have a strong relationship - which could be influential in Poland getting the weapons from America.
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The President briefly met Trump in Washington DC when he waited 90 minutes to meet the American following his CPAC speech.
He even got a shoutout from Trump during the speech, with Don pointing him out in the audience to the crowd.
Trump is a fan of Duda, having previously described him as a "fantastic man" and praised the 84 per cent of American Poles who voted for him in 2024.
But Don has warned that "monster" nuclear weapons could "end the world".
Speaking on Fox, Trump said: "We spend a lot of money of nuclear weapons - the level of destruction is beyond anything you can imagine.
"It's just bad that you have to spend all this money on something that if it's used, it's probably the end of the world."
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Poland has a long history with Russian imperialism, having been broken up several times and occupied by Moscow.
It also shares a border with Russia's exclave Kaliningrad, Russia's close ally Belarus, and Ukraine, which Putin wants as his puppet.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Putin is eyeing invading Poland as one of five other targets.
In particular, the five countries Zelensky has warned about are Eastern European states that all have "Russian roots", Russian populations, or were part of the Soviet Union or its sphere.
Zelensky named Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, and Moldova as those nations potentially being eyed by the Russian.
Russia has long seen itself as the protector of Slavic peoples - while Putin has explicitly said he wants to rebuild the Russian Empire.
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Duda has called on all Nato countries to raise defence cash to three per cent of GDP straight away.
He said: “We cannot wait until 2030.”
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