TNT that Europe needs to defend itself is being used on Gaza, Polish MP claims

Original article by Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Europe cannot supply enough TNT to defend either itself or Ukraine largely because its monopoly supplier of the explosive is contracted to send much of its production to the US which then exports it for use by Israel in Gaza, a Polish MP has claimed.

Maciej Konieczny, a member of the leftwing Razem party said the Polish company Nitro-Chem, owned by the Polish Armaments Group, cannot keep up with demand partly because it has signed successive contracts to supply TNT to the US where it is used in bombs supplied to Israel.

The Polish explosive is allegedly used by the US to produce various types of ammunition, including the 2,000lb MK-84 and 550lb BLU-109 penetrating bombs, both of which Israel is accused of using in Gaza.

The US currently has no means of producing TNT domestically, and the severe shortage has prompted the US government to give permission for a factory to be built in Kentucky.

“Polish TNT is exported entirely abroad and the bombs produced from it fall on the heads of innocent civilians in Gaza and Yemen,” Konieczny told the Guardian.

“Meanwhile due to this diversion of the factory’s output, Poland has no ready means to produce its own necessary ammunition: our current reserves of TNT would only be enough for armed activities for a month in the event of a war. Nor do we have enough TNT to provide artillery shells for Ukraine.

“A full explanation is needed as to whether Gaza is being put ahead of the defence of Europe, and whether this is a demand that is being made of the Polish government by America,” he said.

Konieczny raised the issue in the Polish parliament on Friday.

The Polish factory is estimated to produce between 10,000 and 12,000 tonnes of TNT a year. But about half of its current output is destined for the US until at least 2029.

It is not known precisely what proportion of exported Polish TNT is being used in Ukraine, Gaza or retained for use by the US army. There is no suggestion Nitro-Chem has broken any Polish law.

An alternative source of 5,000 tonnes of TNT a year was Zorya in Ukraine, but the factory in Luhansk is now under Russian occupation. The US is not permitted to purchase TNT from China, and the environmental hazards involved in producing the explosive make building a TNT factory a formidable exercise.

In April 2025, Nitro-Chem signed a fresh contract worth $310m with Paramount Enterprises Ltd, a private defence logistics company specialising in the transportation of munitions and explosives, to deliver 18,000 tonnes of TNT to the US between 2027 and 2029. The deal was signed in the presence of Poland’s deputy defence minister, Cezary Tomczyk.

A report written by a collection of Palestinian NGOs claims that “without Polish-made TNT, the unprecedented scale and intensity of the aerial bombardment that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed living conditions in the Gaza Strip ( ... ) would not have been possible”.

The report had been prepared by the People’s Embargo for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Shadow World Investigations and the Movement Research Unit, which traced the flow of American weapons to Israel.

The NGOs point out that between October 2023 and July 2024 the US transferred at least 14,000 MK-84s and 8,700 MK-82s to Israel. In May 2024 Biden paused the shipment of some larger bombs, but these restrictions were lifted by Donald Trump as soon as he entered office.

General Dynamics, the fifth largest defence company in the world, has been producing the MK-80 series at its Garland Operations facility near Dallas, but the Garland facility was recently taken over by a US subsidiary of the Turkish defence company Repkon. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been one of Israel’s fiercest critics, accusing Israel of undertaking a genocide in Gaza.

In a statement Nitro-Chem said “We emphasize that Nitro-Chem conducts its operations in accordance with applicable national and international law and all regulations relevant to the arms industry. The company remains under constant supervision of the relevant state institutions, and its activities are carried out in accordance with applicable procedures and international standards.”