Poland seeks more US support for Ukraine

Poland's prime minister has said the country has been dealing with the seizure of Russian Federation's money on the grounds that it was designated for terrorist activities.

Morawiecki argued that Ukrainians have to be given at least defensive weapons so that they can defend their homes, lives and families.

He stated that bigger support from the US should consist in the transfer of Javelins, Stingers, all kinds of different defensive weapons, antitank, antiaircraft, antimissile, portable defence. These are weapons that are not threatening Russia. Morawiecki said these are purely defensive weapons.

Morawiecki hopes that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his people will be ready to start real negotiations with the help of growing pressure from the West and the strong morale of Ukrainian soldiers.

This should be a precondition for further negotiations. The sanctions we have adopted are the strongest ever, but we have to prepare for even heavier sanctions. He said that we have to cut off buying Russian gas and oil because these are the main sources of hard currency for Putin, which he then turns into a war machine.

Asked if Putin would attack the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, in the event of his victory, Morawiecki replied: Yes, I think that if they are not stopped in Ukraine, they will focus on other states to reestablish the Russian empire. Polish prime minister has opted for US troops to be stationed in Poland. We have 10,000 American troops here, but we should be able to have a permanent base in Poland with 30 to 40,000 US troops, he said.

Morawiecki's opinion is that Putin, who sees the invasion of Ukraine as a failure, is able to press the button and create another front. This is why we are talking to our American and British allies, asking to get antimissile systems like the Patriot and Sky Sabre, the British air defence system. We have placed these types of defensive weapons in key areas in Poland, he said.

According to Morawiecki, it is important to confiscate the assets of Russian oligarchs and Putin himself.

The freezing of assets is not good enough, because frozen assets can grow in value. The money from the Russian sovereign wealth fund and Russian bonds in central banks of Western countries should be seized and put into a fund to reconstruct Ukraine after the war. Putin has to understand that he is already losing hundreds of billions of dollars if he does not stop, he will lose even more, he said.

Morawiecki explained that a mission led by the Alliance and potentially other international organisations would be completely focused on defending innocent people and could consist of air and ground forces, as well as Poland's proposal to create a Nato peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

A humanitarian peacekeeping mission has to be able to defend innocent people and not be attacked by Russian troops, he said.

He pointed out the Polish proposal to set up a humanitarian zone in the western part of Ukraine as more and more people are fleeing the war there. This would have to be a full mandate of Nato and possibly other international organisations, according to Morawiecki.