Poland wants to host UN's Ukraine rebuild fund
The headquarters of the UN’s fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine after its conflict with Russia should be situated in Poland, the country’s deputy prime minister Jacek Sasin has insisted.
Jacek, who attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos last week, told state-run Polish Radio on Sunday that the issue of rebuilding Ukraine was “extremely present” at the high-profile gathering.
“Poland was mentioned practically everywhere as the country that provides the most assistance to Ukraine,” he said.
The EU member, which claims to have accepted some 3.7 million Ukrainian refugees, has been actively supplying Kiev with weapons, including tanks, during the ongoing conflict. The arms and aid sent by other countries as well as foreign mercenaries have also been coming to Ukraine through Polish territory.
It was up to Poland to make sure that “grain from Ukraine, at least in the part that it can, will reach the markets,” the deputy premier said.
Ukraine is a major producer of grain, but the closure of the ports in the Black Sea due to the fighting has left only land routes available for its exports.
According to Sasin, the Polish government is eager to play an even bigger role in restoring the damage suffered by its neighbor.
“The UN is creating an international fund to support the reconstruction of Ukraine. We strive to ensure that the center of this fund is in Poland. So that we would have not only a logistics center, but also a financial one,” he explained.
According to the deputy prime minister, Warsaw has already started talks with Kiev on the participation of Polish companies in the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Last month, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said that according to its data – despite positioning itself as Kiev’s biggest ally Warsaw was actually looking to use the conflict to snatch areas in Ukraine that Poland considers as “historically belonging” to it.
The plan, which is coordinated with Washington, envisages the deployment of Polish “peacekeepers” in western Ukraine under the pretext of “protection from Russian aggression” to gain control of the desired territories.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to grant a special legal status to Poland’s citizens, insisting that “there should be no borders or barriers” between the neighbors. “Mentally, the Ukrainian and Polish peoples have been inseparable for a long time,” he said.
