Speaking at a conference in the southern city of Gliwice, Tusk addressed inquiries regarding the ongoing discussions among NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, including the potential establishment of an Alliance mission in Ukraine.
"I will not comment on that question until I am fully informed about the scope of these discussions and their outcomes”, the Polish PM was quoted as saying.
“At the moment, I can repeat what I told [French] President Macron and other leaders, including [US] President Biden: Poland has no plans for direct involvement in the war on Ukrainian territory”, he said.
Tusk was referencing Macron’s repeated hints at the possibility of sending NATO troops to Ukraine.
In mid-March, just days after meeting with Tusk and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the French president doubled down on some presence of NATO troops in Ukraine, saying that Western ground operations in that country might be necessary "at some point".
"Maybe at some point - I don't want it, I won't take the initiative - we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces," he was quoted as saying by 'Le Parisien'.
In February, Macron refused to rule out putting troops on the ground in Ukraine, which prompted a stern response from Berlin and comments from other European governments including Warsaw.
The European military heavyweights Poland and Germany have affirmed that they would not be sending troops to Ukraine.
In mid-March, just a day after talks with her Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told Politico that Western countries should not rule out the idea of sending troops to Ukraine if the battlefield situation further deteriorates.
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Source: PAP