German Army Could be Deployed to Poland for First Time Since World War Two

German troops would be welcome in Poland to strengthen NATO's eastern flank against any threat posed by Russia, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna has said. His comments could signal a shift from Warsaw towards Germany, which invaded Poland in 1939, marking the start of World War Two.

After Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the former German ambassador to Warsaw, Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, probed whether Warsaw would like German soldiers in its fellow NATO member, but the offer was refused, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported.

On the 2023 Polish election campaign trail, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, expressed anti-German sentiment rooted in grievances over World War Two. He once said it would be "seven generations" before German soldiers could step on Polish soil.

Kaczyński's PiS right-wing party failed to win a third term in the country's election in 2023, losing its majority to a coalition headed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Meanwhile, Szejna told Rzeczpospolita that Warsaw was actually open to the possibility of German help to protect Poland from Russia.

"When the war is taking place behind our eastern border, any help and cooperation from our allies is most welcome," he said. "So, if the Germans want to strengthen NATO's eastern flank in Poland as they did in Lithuania, herzlich willkommen!" he added, using the German phrase for "welcome."

He noted the significance of a Russian rocket being fired near the city of Zamosc, hundreds of miles from Poland's borders with Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Polish media reported the missile was a Russian CH-55 (KH-55) and Szejna said the incident in December 2022 showed the importance of the German Patriot missile defense system nearby.

"Germany are not only our allies, but also our economic friends," he said, according to a translation of the Polish. "We will not aggressively succumb to Kaczyński's anti-European narrative." Newsweek has contacted the German foreign ministry for comment.

Szejna's comments come amid concerns that the war in Ukraine might expand and follow a warning by President Joe Biden in December that if it were to win the war, Russia would attack a NATO member, a claim dismissed by Putin.

However, attacks on NATO remain a staple discussion topic among Kremlin propagandists, such as Russian lawmaker Aleksey Zhuravlyov who said last week that those in Poland "probably started to realize that they are next."