Radosław Sikorski: It is in the interest of the West to provide Ukraine with weapons to repel attacks

During a short briefing for the Polish media, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski announced that he met on Friday with the head of one of London's leading think tanks, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), as well as with Catherine Ashton, former EU High Representative for External Relations and Security Policy.

On Saturday he plans to visit one of the Polish schools in London, and on Monday he will talk to his British counterpart David Lammy and Defense Minister John Healey, among others.

He also informed that earlier on Friday he had spoken by phone with the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ukraine Andriy Sybiha, for whom it was the first conversation after taking office. – We talked not only about cooperation in repelling Russian aggression, but also about how we can make historical issues less divisive than they have been so far – said the head of Polish diplomacy.

He announced that aid for Ukraine would be the main topic he intended to discuss during Monday's conversation with Lammy, and said that if Great Britain intends to speed up the sending of long-range precision missiles, it would be “very valuable.”

– We already know that the Russians have destroyed, it is estimated, about 70 percent of Ukraine's capacity to generate electricity and heat. And we know that the Russians are also losing control of their drones, missiles, and there are nuclear power plants in Ukraine – he noted.

– So in our own interests, we, as the West, should do everything in our power to provide Ukraine with effective air attack repelling forces as soon as possible. Poland did what it could. We ourselves could have had eight Patriot missile batteries, we have two. As a frontline state, we cannot give more – he argued.

Asked about Monday's interview with the Financial Times, in which he expressed the opinion that Poland and other frontline countries have an “obligation” to shoot down Russian missiles before they enter their airspace, he stressed that the discussion on where the right to self-defense ends is extremely important.

He pointed out that Russian drones and missiles violate Polish airspace, an example of which was the missile that fell 10 km from his home in western Poland in the winter of 2023, and such incidents are now common. – We all know that once a drone enters Polish airspace, shooting it down is not without consequences, it can hurt someone – he emphasized.

– This is an issue in which I have a personal opinion, in which no decisions have been made, but as I have already mentioned, there is also the issue of protecting Ukrainian nuclear power plants, for example. The Russians are launching hundreds of drones and missiles and we cannot rule out that one of them will create a problem for the whole of Europe – explained the head of Polish diplomacy.