Poland Says Will Not Arm Ukraine Forces

Poland will not send arms or otherwise get involved in the bloody conflict in neighboring Ukraine, its prime minister-designate Ewa Kopacz said Friday.

"We shouldn't be an active participant in this armed conflict," Kopacz told reporters, while adding that Poland would adhere to all joint EU initiatives concerning Ukraine.

"Poland should behave like a reasonable Polish woman. Our safety, our country, our home, our children are what's most important.

"Which doesn't mean we should now be a dissenting voice within the (European) Union. Just the opposite. If this large European family decides to help Ukraine, we should absolutely participate," she said.

Poland and its outgoing foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, whom Kopacz left out of her new cabinet line-up, had been among the Ukrainian government's staunchest supporters and Russia's harshest critics.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appeared before the US Congress to call for greater political and military support from Washington and tighter sanctions on Russia, which he said represented a threat to global security.

"If they are not stopped now, they will cross European borders and spread throughout the globe," he said.

The EU and Ukraine on Tuesday ratified a landmark association agreement that decisively steers the former Soviet state towards the West and away from Russian influence.

Russia responded by announcing it would reinforce its troop deployments in southern Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed from Ukraine in March.