Borders & Neighbours
Poland's position. The EU and NATO accession, the eastern frontier, relations with Germany, Ukraine and Russia, the refugee reception, and the incursions.
Part of Poland
5 moments in this segment.
- - Poland Joins the EU. May 1, 2004. Poland accedes to the European Union, the largest single enlargement in EU history. 75% of Poles vote yes in the 2003 referendum. 1.5M Poles migrate westward in the first decade.
- - Belarus Border Crisis. August 2021 - 2022. Belarus dictator Lukashenko channels migrants from the Middle East and Africa to the Polish border. Poland erects a 5.5m steel fence along 186 km of the EU's eastern border. The first major migrant-weaponisation crisis of the 2020s.
- - Economy Closing on Britain. During the 2024 British election campaign Keir Starmer warned that the UK economy could be overtaken by Poland's before the end of the decade; Sky News works through the figures behind the claim. A measure of how Poland's growth is now read from outside.
- - Russian Drones Over Poland. Poland scrambled fighter jets and NATO air defences overnight after Russian drones entered its airspace, which Warsaw called an unprecedented violation. It was the country's first engagement of the war since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Poland invoked NATO's Article 4 consultations.
- - Russian Missile Falls on Polish Soil. NATO confirmed that an object which crashed in eastern Poland was a Russian missile fired during an overnight attack on Ukraine, leaving a large crater near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia. No casualties were reported.
