FILE PHOTO: Newly appointed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks as he attends the cabinet swearing-in ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland December 13, 2023. REUTERS/Aleksandra Szmigiel/File Photo
KYIV (Reuters) - Poland's new Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in neighbouring Ukraine on Monday to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, aiming to strengthen relations after months of political friction between the two wartime allies.
Tusk's government is exploring how to make more ammunition and military equipment as part of a new aid package for Ukraine, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said last week.
Warsaw has emerged as a key ally for Kyiv as it defends itself against Russia and seeks more financial and military support from Western partners. Poland has also taken in more than a million Ukrainian refugees.
"There is no more important issue than supporting Ukraine in its war effort - that is number one," said Tusk, who assumed office last month, in comments carried on Polish television.
Relations between the two had deteriorated in recent months amid blockades by Polish truckers at the border, which threatened to dent Ukraine's GDP.
They agreed last week to suspend their protests, which had been aimed at revoking Ukrainian truckers' permit-free access to the European Union, until March 1.
Tusk said his visit was also aimed at "solving problems as quickly as possible".
A video released by his office showed the newly installed leader arriving at Kyiv's main train station in his first trip to Ukraine as prime minister.
Tusk's visit, during which he will also meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Denys Shmyhal, coincides with Ukraine's Unity Day holiday, which celebrates the unification of western and eastern Ukraine in 1919.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Max Hunder and Paweł Florkiewicz; Editing by Bernadette Baum, David Goodman and Philippa Fletcher)
