Polish president shows off military hardware, sees Russia 'floundering' in Ukraine
WARSAW (Reuters) -Russian forces have floundered in Ukraine and history shows Russia's army can be beaten in combat, Poland's president told a military parade on Friday marking the 105th anniversary of a victory over the Red Army by Polish defenders.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, an ally of Donald Trump's MAGA movement, spoke as the eyes of the world were focused on Alaska, where the U.S. president will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks on the war in Ukraine.
The parade marked the 105th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw during which Poland defeated the invading Red Army and prevented Soviet forces pushing towards western Europe.
"Russia is not invincible," Nawrocki said in a speech before the parade.
"It lost to Japan at the beginning of the 20th century, it was defeated by the Poles in 1920, and today, for over three years... it has been floundering after its attack on Ukraine thanks to the support of allies and the solidarity of free nations, including, and at times especially, Poland."
Already tense relations between Warsaw and Moscow have hit new lows since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. NATO member Poland says its own role as a hub for aid for Kyiv has made it a target of Russian sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation.
Nawrocki joined a Ukraine teleconference with Europe an leaders and Trump on Wednesday that discussed the U.S. president's forthcoming summit with Putin.
Warsaw, NATO's leading spender on defence as a percentage of GDP, has ramped up its military spending since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It plans to spend 5% of GDP on defence in 2026 to repel what it says is a renewed threat from the east.
Around 50 military aircraft, including F-16 fighter jets, flew overhead as 4,000 Polish soldiers accompanied by around 200 troops from NATO allies marched alongside the Vistula river beside Leopard, K2 and Abrams tanks, Borsuk and Rosomak armoured vehicles as well as Patriot and HIMARS artillery systems.
A naval parade featuring around 20 vessels also took place in the Baltic sea.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Editing by William Maclean)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Trump says Putin agrees with him US should not have mail-in voting
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump pose on a podium on the tarmac after they arrived to attend a meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agrees with him that letting voters send in ballots by mail puts honest elections at risk. "Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting," Trump told Fox News Channel's "Hannity" after a nearly three-hour meeting between the leaders in Alaska. "He said there's not a country in the world that uses it now." Trump, who promoted the false narrative that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 election, cited his agreement with Putin over absentee voting as he pressed his fellow Republicans to try harder to advance overhauls to the U.S. voting system that he has long sought. Trump has voted by mail in some previous elections and urged his supporters to do so in 2024. Putin, who has been Russia's president or prime minister since 1999, was elected to another term in office with 87% of the vote in a 2024 election that drew allegations of vote rigging from some independent polling observers, opposition voices and Western governments. The most formidable opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic penal colony in 2024. Russia's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his conversation with Trump. The Russian president has previously said some U.S. elections were marred by fraudulent voting, without presenting evidence. The position mirrors Trump's false claims of widespread voter fraud following the 2020 election. Justice Department and Senate investigations found that Moscow tried to influence campaigns to help Trump win in the 2016 election. U.S. intelligence officials have said they believe Russia tried to do the same in 2020 elections and preferred Trump to win in 2024. Trump and some of his top aides long have asserted that he and his presidential campaigns were falsely accused of colluding with Russia, a claim he brought up again in Alaska on Friday. The U.S. intelligence community never reached such a conclusion. Trump, who has not ruled out seeking a third term in office despite a constitutional prohibition, on Friday showed impatience with Republicans for not prioritizing election reform legislation. "The Republicans want it, but not strongly enough," Trump said during the interview. "You can't have a great democracy with mail-in voting." Some Republicans, echoing Trump's claims, argue that changes like restricting absentee voting and requiring identification could reduce the risks of ballot tampering, impersonation or other forms of fraud that independent analysts say is rare. Nearly three dozen countries from Canada to Germany and South Korea allow some form of postal vote, though more than half of them place some restrictions on which voters qualify, according to the Sweden-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental advocacy group. The Trump administration has stepped back from commenting on the fairness or integrity of elections conducted by many foreign countries in a significant departure from Washington's traditional approach of promoting democratic elections overseas. (Reporting by Reuters Washington bureau; Editing by William Mallard)
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Melania Trump sends letter to Putin about abducted children
FILE PHOTO: U.S. first lady Melania Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 8, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/ File Photo ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said on Friday. President Trump hand-delivered the letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska, the officials told Reuters. Slovenian-born Melania Trump was not on the trip to Alaska. The officials would not divulge the contents of the letter other than to say it mentioned the abductions of children resulting from the war in Ukraine. The existence of the letter was not previously reported. Russia's seizure of Ukrainian children has been a deeply sensitive one for Ukraine. Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the U.N. treaty definition of genocide. Previously Moscow has said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone. The United Nations Human Rights Office has said Russia has inflicted suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full scale invasion of Ukraine begun in 2022. Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours at a U.S. military base in Anchorage without reaching a ceasefire deal in the war in Ukraine.
New Straits Times
4 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Putin says 'understanding' with Trump on Ukraine
ANCHORAGE: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday spoke of an "understanding" reached with US counterpart Donald Trump which he said could bring peace in Ukraine, without giving any details. The leaders met for a highly anticipated summit in Alaska to discuss Russia's invasion of Ukraine and ways towards peace, but there was no apparent breakthrough deal. "We hope that the understanding we have reached will... pave the way for peace in Ukraine," Putin said at a joint press conference with Trump after their talks. He said Moscow expected "that Kyiv and the European capitals will perceive all this in a constructive manner and will not create any obstacles." He also warned against "attempts to disrupt the emerging progress through provocation or behind-the-scenes intrigues." The summit was held without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who was not invited to talks, raising concerns in Europe that Moscow and Washington would try to decide Ukraine's fate behind its back. Putin and Trump praised the meeting, with the Russian leader branding it as "constructive" and held in "mutually respectful atmosphere." Speaking about Ukraine, Putin said Russia was "sincerely interested in putting an end" to the conflict in Ukraine but called for Russia's "legitimate concerns" to be taken into account. "I have said more than once that for Russia, the events in Ukraine are associated with fundamental threats to our national security," Putin said. He added that "a fair balance in the security sphere in Europe and in the world as a whole must be restored." Russia has in the past repeatedly called on Ukraine to abandon its ambitions to join Nato and cede its eastern regions that Moscow claims to have annexed. Ukraine has rejected the idea and called for any peace deal to include security guarantees to prevent Russia from attacking again. Putin, landing in Alaska, stepped onto Western soil for the first time since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a war that has killed tens of thousands of people. On Friday he offered to host Trump in Moscow, extending the apparent invitation during their press conference. "Next time in Moscow," Putin told Trump in English after the US president said he would "probably see you again very soon." "Oh, that's an interesting one," Trump responded. "I'll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening."
