European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived at the Polish-Belarusian border on Sunday, where they discussed defence and security, among other issues.

The EC chief assured Tusk and the Polish people of “Europe’s full solidarity with Poland as a frontline state,” and stressed the importance of putting continued pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Putin has not changed and will not change. He is a predator,” the European Commission president said, adding that “he can only be kept in check through strong deterrence.”

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Von der Leyen’s trip to Poland comes as part of her four-day tour of European states bordering Russia or its ally Belarus, aimed at stressing solidarity with border states and supporting the development of Europe’s defence industry.

The pair visited the Polish-Belarusian border in a show of support for Poland and other states on the EU’s eastern flank. The border has caused great contention since the beginning of a migration crisis in 2021, which Poland has described as “hybrid warfare” orchestrated by Belarus.

Poland as the largest defence spender in Europe and biggest beneficiary from SAFE

“This is the border we have to guard, in which we have to invest European money as well,” Tusk said.

The EC chief turned to the Prime Minister with the comment: “It was during your Polish Presidency that we included €800 billion of investment in the defence plan,” highlighting the EU’s plans to strengthen the security of Poland and the bloc as a whole, including through the SAFE programme, an instrument designed to boost defence production across the bloc.

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“This is €150 billion for joint purchases. So that we make our home, the European Union, stronger and safer,” she said, adding that EU member states with direct borders with Belarus and Russia will receive additional funds.

Poland is the largest defence spender in Europe, and will be the biggest beneficiary from SAFE, von der Leyen wrote in a statement on X.

“To match Poland’s readiness, we have proposed a fivefold increase in defence investments. And a ten-fold increase in funding for military mobility,” she added.

Tusk also revealed Poland’s plans for future military investments.

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“Poland will invest PLN 200 billion in defence next year, in the defence industry and in the Polish army. So we take our responsibilities seriously and we expect all institutions and countries in Europe to take the security of the eastern border equally seriously and to take a tough stance against the aggressor and against Russia,” he said.

45th anniversary the August Agreements

The meeting between Tusk and von der Leyen coincided with the 45th anniversary the August Agreements, a historical deal between the communist government and striking workers that paved the way for the creation of the Solidarity Trade Union, the first independent trade union in the Eastern bloc, which played a pivotal role in the collapse of communism in Europe.

“We are not here to celebrate an anniversary,” Tusk said, “I have chosen this place […] to show what contemporary solidarity is about today.”

“Solidarity was a great dream of independence, it was a great movement whose task was also to unite Europe and to separate itself from the evil world, from the evil empire of the time. And this border is as important today as our dream to liberate ourselves from Soviet domination was important then,” he added.

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Responding to Tusk’s words on the anniversary of the key event, von der Leyen stressed Poland’s resilience and commitment to security and defence cooperation.

“45 years ago, a wind of change blew through Poland, a wind strong enough to break the concrete of communism. Solidarity was a turning point not only for Poland, but for the whole democratic world, setting Poland on the path towards the EU,” she said.

Von der Leyen’s visit Poland is part of a broader tour of EU countries bordering Russia and Belarus, which also includes Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, as well as Bulgaria and Romania.

The Commission chief is on a seven-country tour of the so-called front-line states to reassure them of the EU’s support against Russian aggression. Her trip coincides with amped-up efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to broker a ceasefire in Putin’s war against Ukraine, now in it’s fourth year.

In addition to Poland, von der Leyen is visiting Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia — all of which share a border with Russia or Belarus — as well as Bulgaria and Romania, in what amounts to her biggest diplomatic push on EU security and defense since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk visited Ozierany Male near a section of a newly completed electric fence on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Tusk said the border was “as important” as the dream of liberation from “Soviet domination” 45 years ago, referring to the anniversary of a milestone accord of Aug. 31, 1980.

Von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the border. | Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images

“Poland, Europe, NATO, the United States must again, just as we once did, just as we felt the support of the entire West 45 years ago when Solidarity was founded, they must also today be very tough, decisive, and show solidarity towards this next version of the evil empire,” Tusk said.

Tusk added that von der Leyen had come to the Polish-Belarusian border “to find arguments to convince everyone in Europe that this is the border we must protect, and in which we must also invest European money.”

The announcement came hours after overnight Russian strikes on energy sites left 60,000 Ukrainians without electricity.

Ukraine intends to strike deep into Russia following a large Russian drone attack that left 60,000 Ukrainians without electricity, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Speaking on Sunday after a meeting with his top general, Oleksandr Syrskii, the Ukrainian president confirmed the new planned strikes on X.

Both sides have intensified their air strikes in recent weeks, with Moscow attacking Ukraine’s energy and transport systems as well as launching deadly strikes in recent days on civilian areas in Kyiv and Zaporizhia, and Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries and pipelines.

Overnight, Russian drones hit four energy facilities in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to the private energy company DTEK. The strikes left 29,000 people without electricity, local authorities reported.

The port city of Chornomorsk near Odesa, where one person was injured, was the worst-affected place, regional Governor Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram. “Critical infrastructure is operating on generators,” he said.

DTEK said emergency repair work would start following the all-clear from the Ukrainian military, which reported that in total, Russia had attacked Ukraine with 142 drones, all but 10 of which it claimed to have downed.

The Russian military suggested on Sunday that it had shot down 112 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov blamed Europe for the continuation of the war and for hampering United States President Donald Trump’s peace efforts.

“The European warring party is maintaining its fundamental course; it is not giving in,” he said from the sidelines of a summit in China, in a reference to the European Union’s arms deliveries to Ukraine.

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His words came just days after a Russian air strike killed at least 23 people and damaged EU diplomatic offices in central Kyiv.

Speaking just hours before Trump’s deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he thought the war, which began more than three and a half years ago, would not finish soon.

“I am preparing myself inwardly for this war to last a long time,” he told the public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, noting that diplomatic efforts to bring the conflict to an end could not come “at the price of Ukraine’s capitulation”.

Elsewhere, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, travelled to Poland on Sunday as part of her tour of EU states that border Russia and its ally Belarus.

Speaking alongside the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, von der Leyen called Putin a “predator” who could only be kept in check through “strong deterrence”.

The EU Commission president also said that member states bordering Russia and Belarus would receive additional funding from the bloc, calling the defence of its borders a “shared responsibility”.

While the EU continues to highlight Russia’s security risk for the wider continent, the Kremlin has sought to embellish its military achievements in a bid to make its victory in Ukraine seem inevitable, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank.

In its latest assessment of the conflict, ISW said that Russian army chief General Valery Gerasimov’s claims on Saturday about Russian gains were exaggerated.

The Russian general had suggested that the Kremlin’s forces had captured 3,500sq km [1,351sq miles] of territory and 149 settlements since the start of March.

“Gerasimov’s claims notably inflate Russian gains by roughly 1,200 square kilometres [463sq miles] and 19 settlements,” the ISW said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived at the Polish-Belarusian border on Sunday, where, among other things, they discussed defense and security.

The EC chief assured Tusk and the Polish people of “Europe’s full solidarity with Poland as a frontline state,” and stressed the importance of exerting continued pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Putin has not changed and will not change. He is a predator,” said the European Commission president, adding that “he can only be kept under control through strong deterrence,” the Telegraph reports.

Von der Leyen’s trip to Poland comes as part of her four-day tour of European states bordering Russia or its ally Belarus, which aims to emphasize solidarity with border states and support the development of Europe’s defense industry.

The pair visited the Polish-Belarusian border in a show of support for Poland and other states on the EU’s eastern flank.

The border has caused major controversy since the start of a migration crisis in 2021, which Poland has described as a “hybrid war” orchestrated by Belarus.

“This is the border we must protect, in which we must also invest European money,” Tusk said.

Tusk also revealed Poland’s plans for future military investments.

“Poland will invest PLN 200 billion (about 47 billion) in defense next year, in the defense industry and in the Polish army. So we take our responsibilities seriously and we expect all institutions and countries in Europe to take the security of the eastern border equally seriously and to maintain a tough stance against the aggressor and against Russia,” he said. /Telegraph/

“There is an aggressor, which is Russia and a people who have suffered aggression, which is Ukraine,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, hitting back at Trump’s attempts to treat the two sides evenly. “You have to respect those who have been fighting since the beginning because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, for their children, and for the security of Europe.”

Macron also noted that the U.S. had not been the only country to support Kyiv, stressing that it was also backed by European countries, Canada and Japan.

In the Oval Office, Trump told Zelenskyy his refusal to concede to Russia at the negotiating table was “gambling with World War III.”

Later, Macron told Portuguese television: “If someone is playing World War III, his name is Vladimir Putin.”

Major rift

Germany’s almost-certain next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, struck a similar tone addressing a tweet directly to “Dear Volodymyr” in which he vowed to stand with Ukraine “in good and in testing times.”

Over the past weeks, Europe has been steeling itself for a major rift with Washington over Trump’s hectoring treatment of Ukraine and its leader.