Polish FM reveals limits of support for Ukraine
Poland has “zero willingness” to send troops to defend Ukraine, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has told Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who presented themselves as former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko in a prank call with Warsaw's top diplomat published on Thursday.
The pair typically dupe public figures into talking to them by imitating various officials. At one point, their fake Poroshenko asked whether Poland would be willing to “join the team” and fight Russian troops on territory claimed by Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk would be “very reluctant to do so,” Sikorski replied. Even the proposal to shoot down Russian cruise missiles over western Ukraine with Polish interceptors is “very, very controversial,” since this would amount to joining the conflict, the official explained.
“If the front started to collapse, things might change. But at the moment there is zero willingness to do that,” Sikorski said.
Poland is concerned that by sending troops to Ukraine, Warsaw would confirm Russian claims that it has designs on territory that Kiev received from Poland as part of a border settlement after World War II, the diplomat noted.
Warsaw is willing to train Ukrainian soldiers and facilitate the return of Ukrainian citizens eligible for military service, Sikorsky said. But “Polish soldiers inside Ukraine – not doable. Unless there was a peace agreement, and these were peacekeeping forces, UN or something. Then it’s different, maybe,” he added.
Sikorsky suggested that a military intervention by other members of NATO was likewise improbable, as “there is no willingness to have a war with Russia in Western Europe. This is an absolute red line.”
However, the US will keep sending military aid to Ukraine no matter what, the Polish minister argued, claiming that Washington’s credibility among its allies is at stake.
He also described as “very unhelpful” public calls by Polish President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the previous conservative government, to station US nuclear weapons on Polish soil. If deployed, such weapons would remain outside of Warsaw’s control and wouldn’t make a difference for Russia, since other European nations already host similar arms, Sikorsky said.
“It’s like being a postman who has a million-dollar check, who feels important, as if this million dollars was his,” he explained.
