Polen plant, eine Beteiligung an einer großen ukrainischen Bank zu erwerben und die Wiederaufbaukonferenz der Ukraine in Warschau auszurichten. Ziel ist es, eine starke wirtschaftliche und politische Rolle beim Wiederaufbau nach dem Krieg zu sichern und finanzielle Unterstützung für polnische Unternehmen in der Ukraine zu schaffen

Translation:

**Poland prepares to take over a bank in Ukraine**

Authorities in Warsaw are interested in taking over a large Ukrainian bank – according to information from WP. It is also almost certain that this year’s Ukraine reconstruction conference will be held in Poland. The previous one was in Rome. Besides Warsaw, the Ukrainians had considered Vienna or Paris – according to our findings.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in Kyiv on Thursday morning. He is accompanied, among others, by the Minister of Finance and Economy Andrzej Domański, who is preparing a global conference devoted to the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. According to information from WP, it is almost certain that it will take place in the spring in Warsaw. Although until recently President Zelensky’s adviser Ihor Zhovkva – as WP’s sources claim – in talks with Polish diplomats had suggested that it could be Vienna or Paris. Today this issue is said to be already closed.

The second objective is the acquisition of shares in one of the large Ukrainian banks. Poland has decided that it will seek a stake in the state-controlled Oschadbank or Ukreximbank (currently PKO BP is a shareholder of Kredobank operating in western Ukraine). In the future, during reconstruction, it would serve as a base and support for Polish business.

Unofficially, we learn that after the January speech in Davos and the aggressive address by Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he accused EU leaders of hypocrisy, the Ukrainian president’s ratings in the EU dropped radically. Usually in such situations Kyiv tries to compensate for losses by moving closer to regional players. Most often to Warsaw, which it perceives as less important than Berlin or Paris, but as the most important capital in Central Europe.

Not without significance is also the fact that Tusk’s government unequivocally supported the EU aid package for Ukraine within the EU worth 60 billion euros. Poland is the fifth-largest contributor. Pressure on Zelensky regarding holding the conference in Warsaw and the role of Polish business in reconstruction is also facilitated by the transfer of Polish MiG-29s, which took place at the turn of 2025 and 2026.

– We have such hope that after the swift end of the war, or at least after a ceasefire, it will be possible to proceed with a major plan for the reconstruction of Ukraine. And that also means major investments, big money, major undertakings. Poland wants to participate in them – Donald Tusk said on Tuesday, ahead of his visit to Kyiv.

However, equally great hopes were expressed by the prime minister during his visit to Ukraine in January 2024. At that time he supported a plan for Polish companies to build a section of a highway from the border to the city of Rivne. Polish companies were to have the opportunity to remain concessionaires of this highway. Ultimately, nothing came of it. Polish companies did not even enter the tender. As representatives of the construction industry tell WP, as long as hostilities do not end, there can be no talk of operating beyond the border zone. In this sense, the absence of Poles from the construction of the highway to Rivne is not the result of negligence by Polish authorities, but of restraint on the part of business itself.

One of WP’s interlocutors assesses that currently Ukraine is investing in Poland more effectively than Poland in Ukraine. Somewhat maliciously, he adds that Kyiv will sooner rebuild Poland than the other way around. As an example, he cites the takeover by Ukrainian businessman Volodymyr Petrenko of a majority stake in Baltchem, which deals with the storage and transshipment of petroleum products.

Ukrainians are also very active on the coal market. The Ukrainian company Coal Energy was interested in taking over Siltech in order – even after the closure of the Siltech mine – to gain access to the Bobrek-Miechowice deposit on the border of Zabrze and Bytom. The Ukrainian company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange plans to extract 25 million tons of coal.

Our interlocutors point out that at the same time Poland is unable to deliver on the emotional promise made to Ukrainians to rebuild a tenement house bombed by the Russians, which Tusk made in September 2024 in Lviv. This issue was widely discussed during the Polish prime minister’s visit to that city. Extensive photo documentation was created of a moved Tusk. However, there is no trace that anything regarding the reconstruction has actually happened.