During a visit to Euroterminal Slawkow Transport Center in southern Poland on May 26, Prime Minister Tusk proposed expanding the facility to become an important center for transporting materials for Ukrainian reconstruction.
It is not wrong to say that we want to earn a large sum of money for Poland from the process of rebuilding Ukraine, RT quoted Mr. Tusk as emphasizing to the press. We want to help, but at the same time, we also want economic benefits, and this special center is a necessary step for that goal.
Poland has long been one of the largest donors to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia broke out in 2022, with more than 5.1 billion euros ($5.7 billion) in aid, of which more than 70% is military aid, according to Germany's Kiel Institute.
Warsaw is also an active member of the coalition of ready-made countries, which promotes the maintenance of military aid to Kiev.
Polish authorities have repeatedly called for the EU to increase military capabilities to deal with what it calls an increasing threat from Russia, while Moscow has repeatedly denied it with unfounded and vingate fear arguments.
Euroterminal Slawkow, established in 2010, is located near the intersection of two trans-European transport corridors III and VI, connecting Poland with Lithuania, Germany, Italy and many locations in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Tusk said that this location has the potential to become a major cargo transit hub, thanks to its important location connecting railway lines from Western Europe to Ukraine and Asia.
Mr. Tusk expressed his disappointment with Poland's small role in the reconstruction process after the Iraq war, affirming that this time Poland will not be abandoned.
We cannot leave the situation as before... when everyone participates, including Poland, but the larger countries make big profits while Poland is left behind, he said.
He concluded: "If we talk about tens, hundreds of billions of dollars that the world, Europe, Poland and Ukraine will spend on reconstruction, then expanding this logistics center is to help Poland gain financial benefits from it."
The World Bank estimates that the cost of rebuilding Ukraine could reach more than 500 billion USD in the next decade. Several EU countries, including Poland, have proposed using frozen Russian state assets to finance the operation.
However, some other countries have warned that such a job could set a bad precedent and reduce global investor confidence in Europe.
Moscow condemned the incident as "theft" and threatened to retaliate against Western investments in Russia.
