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.”