Poland’s prime minister calls on US to help Ukraine defend itself

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

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

He stated that larger support from the US should consist in the transfer of javelins, stingers, and 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 with growing pressure from the West and the strong morale of Ukrainian soldiers Russian President Vladimir Putin and his people would be ready to start real negotiations to have a ceasefire, withdraw Russian troops and end the war.

This should be a precondition for further negotiations. We have adopted the strongest sanctions and we have to prepare for even heavier sanctions, because of the strong ones we have adopted. 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 could attack the Baltic states, and possibly even Poland and Moldova, Morawiecki replied: Yes, I think that they will concentrate on other states to reestablish the Russian empire if they are not stopped in Ukraine. The Polish prime minister opted for permanent US troops 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.

In Morawiecki's opinion, Putin, who sees the invasion of Ukraine as a failure, is able to create a front by pressing the button. This is why we have been talking to our American and British allies, asking to get antimissile systems such as 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.

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

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 lodged in central banks of Western countries should be taken 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, and if he does not stop, he will lose even more, he said.

Morawiecki explained that the mission, led by the Alliance and possibly other international organisations, would be completely focused on defending innocent people, and could consist of both air and ground forces, based on 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 organizations, Morawiecki said.