Poland seeks more protection from Russia

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Poland seeks more protection from Russia

Poland's prime minister said the country had been dealing with the seizure of Russian Federation's money on the basis that it was earmarked 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 of the transfer of Javelins, Stingers, all kinds of different defensive weapons, antitank, antiaircraft, antimissile, portable defence. These weapons 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 purchasing 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 perhaps even Poland and Moldova, Morawiecki replied: Yes, I think that if they are not stopped in Ukraine, they will concentrate on other states to restore the Russian empire: the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and maybe even Poland and Moldova. Polish prime minister has opted for permanent US troops stationed in Poland. He said that 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.

In Morawiecki's opinion, Putin, who sees the invasion of Ukraine as a failure, is able to press the button and create another front. He said that 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.

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

The freezing of frozen 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 confiscated and put into a fund to reconstruct Ukraine after the war. Putin is already losing hundreds of billions of dollars and if he does not stop, he will lose even more, he said.

Morawiecki explained that a 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, and could consist of 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.