New Foreign Minister Sikorski: Poland stands by Ukraine
It is "completely unacceptable that a country attacks its neighbor and bombs cities, destroys entire provinces and deports children," said Sikorski during his first trip abroad since taking office. During the meeting, air alarms sounded, warning of possible new Russian airstrikes. "I believe that this is the last colonial war in Europe and it must end as follows: Russia should lose and Ukraine should win," he added.
"If the West mobilizes, I have no doubt who will win, but it must finally start mobilizing," Sikorski said in a press conference at the end of his trip. Western economies are "20 times richer than Russia" - but Moscow has "switched its economy to war mode".
"We cannot allow Russia to produce more on the basis of a much smaller economy," continued the Foreign Minister. "Because wars are not won through tactical battles, wars are won through production."
Kiev's allies are becoming increasingly cautious. According to senators, the US Congress, for example, will not approve any new military aid for Ukraine this year.
Sikorski's visit is a signal from the new Polish government that it intends to continue its support for Ukraine. Under the previous right-wing nationalist government, there had recently been tensions between Warsaw and Kiev.
Poland and Ukraine are close allies. Since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Warsaw has been one of Kiev's biggest supporters and arms suppliers. Recently, however, there has been a dispute over Ukrainian grain exports and the activities of Ukrainian transport companies in Poland, which has led to Polish truck drivers blocking border crossings between the two countries.
"We need to find solutions," Kuleba told Sikorski. "The first thing we have to do is unblock the border, because this situation, when our friendly relationship is in the shadow of the blocked border, is unacceptable and harmful." Polish Deputy Infrastructure Minister Pawel Gancarz later stated that Poland hoped for a solution before Christmas or the end of the year.
Since the beginning of November, Polish transport companies have been blocking several important border crossings to Ukraine, which has largely brought freight traffic to a standstill. Polish freight forwarders are complaining of "unfair competition" from Ukrainian companies after the EU suspended a number of conditions for border transport due to the Russian attack on the neighboring country.
Meanwhile, the warring parties in Ukraine and Russia reported hostile drone attacks. According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia launched a total of 28 Iranian-made Shahed combat drones in the direction of Ukraine on Friday night. 24 of them were intercepted.
Russian authorities declared that they had intercepted at least ten Ukrainian drones over the capital Moscow and other regions on Friday. At least twelve people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, regional occupation chief Denis Pushilin stated on the online service Telegram.
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Source: www.stern.de
