WARSAW — Feted as a conquering hero who saved Europe from Russia’s maw, President Volodymyr Zelensky, making his first official state visit to Poland, on Wednesday won strong backing for his country’s rapid entry into NATO and signed a deal paving the way for the joint production of arms and ammunition.
While scattered street protests by Polish farmers angry at a flood of Ukrainian grain imports introduced a sour note — and prompted the resignation of Poland’s agriculture minister shortly after Mr. Zelensky’s arrival in Warsaw — the Ukrainian leader met with a rapturous reception in the Polish capital, bedecked with the flags of the two neighbors.
Poland and Ukraine have a tangled and sometimes violent history but, Mr. Zelensky said in an emotional speech thanking the Polish people for their robust support against Russia and for sheltering millions of refugees, share a “common enemy”: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his predecessors in the Kremlin.
“He will be responsible for the rest of his life here on earth,” Mr. Zelensky said in a speech delivered outside the Royal Castle, which was rebuilt after the near total destruction of Warsaw during World War II and is a potent symbol of Poland’s postwar revival.
“Just as the Polish society managed to rebuild the Royal Castle, so Ukraine, with our support, with the support of the Western community, all countries and people of good will, will rebuild more beautiful than it was,” President Andrzej Duda said.
For all their shared bravado and optimism over Ukraine’s chances for victory, Mr. Zelensky, at a news conference with his Polish counterpart, gave a glimpse of the grave peril facing his troops, particularly in the eastern city of Bakhmut, the scene of a grinding and brutal conflict since last summer.
Indicating that Ukrainian forces could pull out of Bakhmut if they risked being encircled by Russian troops, he said: “If there is a moment of even hotter events and a danger that we may lose personnel due to the encirclement, there will certainly be corresponding correct decisions of the general on the ground.”
Trading his signature olive-green sweatshirt for a more formal black one, Mr. Zelensky started his visit with a welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace featuring an honor guard and military band. Formal pageantry then gave way to a day of meetings with Polish leaders focused on military cooperation and how to advance Ukraine’s entry into both NATO and the European Union, which last year granted his country “candidate” status.
With the military alliance unlikely to admit Ukraine any time soon, Mr. Duda said that Warsaw would push NATO leaders to provide “additional security guarantees” for Ukraine when they meet for their annual summit this summer.
He did not specify what these would be, saying only that they serve as a “prelude” to full membership, a goal “in which Poland strongly supports Ukraine all the time.”
The linchpin of NATO’s eastern flank, Poland is one of only seven countries in the 31-nation alliance that meets spending targets and has acquired significant clout within in the alliance since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Shortly before Mr. Zelensky arrived in Warsaw, the U.S. ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, joined officials from the Polish Defense Ministry at a military base west of the capital for the ceremonial opening of a huge military warehouse complex, which will store American tanks and other hardware. Mr. Brzezinski described it as “the largest single infrastructure project funded by NATO in 30 years.”
Instead of curtailing NATO’s expansion into the former Soviet satellite states of Eastern and Central Europe, one of the main goals set by Mr. Putin, the Kremlin’s military onslaught on Ukraine has “brought Poland and the United States closer together for a common cause,” the ambassador said. The United States Army last month opened its first permanent garrison in Poland.
“Today we are continuing to expand on a lasting U.S. military footprint in Poland,” Mr. Brzezinski said.
