Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Friday that no one can mock Polish soldiers after US President Donald Trump's remarks about NATO troops in Afghanistan.
"The province of Ghazni, where our contingent served, in the Pashtun south, was a frontline one, 7/10 on the Afghan scale of difficulty and danger. No one has the right to mock the service of our soldiers," Sikorski wrote on US social media platform X.
That was after Trump said NATO troops stayed "a little back, a little off the front lines" during the war in Afghanistan.
"There is no doubt that Polish soldiers are Heroes. They deserve respect and words of gratitude for their service. Forty-four brave Poles fell in Afghanistan: 43 soldiers and one civilian. They will remain in our memory forever!" Polish President Karol Nawrocki wrote on X.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk noted attending a farewell ceremony for Polish soldiers in 2011, saying American officers who accompanied him told him that "America would never forget the Polish heroes."
"Perhaps they will remind President Trump of that fact," said Tusk.
Earlier, Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz rejected Trump's claims and stressed that Polish soldiers paid "the ultimate price" for international security, and their sacrifice "will never be forgotten and cannot be diminished."
Separately, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced Trump's comments as "insulting and frankly appalling."
"If I had misspoken in that way, I would certainly apologize," he said.
