We need to prove to ourselves and to Putin that we can stay the course and ultimately win, Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said during the PISM Strategic Ark conference. In his view, both the European Union and the United States can afford supporting Ukraine because the cost of its defeat would be incomparably higher.
In a panel titled "The Final Countdown. Are We Even Ready to Fight and Win?", moderated by the Polish Institute of International Affairs Director Sławomir Dębski, minister Sikorski said was asked, among other things, how, in the context of the war in Ukraine, Polish experience can help restore faith that the free world can win.
The minister assessed that this was a good moment to talk about it because Poland remains an example and symbol of the Western world's victory in the Cold War.
He emphasized that everyone knows what Poland had looked like 40 years ago and that it had gone through a rapid transformation process from dictatorship to democracy and from a centrally planned economy to a free market, achieving undeniable success in both areas.
Moreover, Sikorski noted that since then, Poland has made various assumptions that have proven to be inaccurate in the long run.
He pointed out that Poland assumed, among other things, that it might be possible to civilize Russia and was convinced that if China were admitted to the World Trade Organization, it would liberalize its economy and possibly, in the future, its politics, and also that Iraq could become a well-functioning democracy.
"It’s absurd to say that we are tired of this war"
"Last year it looked like we were winning. This year is a challenge. But wars are never linear. We need to prove to ourselves and to Putin that we can stay the course and ultimately win," the minister said, referring to the war in Ukraine.
Speaking about the effort and costs of supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the MFA chief said: "It’s absurd to say that we are tired of this war."
"The European Union is, depending how you count, a 15 to 17 trillion euro economy. On this war we’ve spent so far 120 billion. Peanuts. I mean we spend more on agriculture, on many other items in our European budget," he argued.
Sikorski added that the USA has spent on the war in Ukraine approximately as much as the EU has, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. defense budget, and that it was enough to help Ukraine defeat the first Russian army that invaded it in 2022.
"This is really good value for money. We can afford it," he stressed, adding that "the cost of deterring Putin if he can claim victory will be much higher".
“And lastly, it can’t be us who decides what Ukraine can live with. Because then it becomes Munich or Yalta."
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP