Polish Foreign Minister says Putin should be wondering what Ukraine's Western allies might do next

Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, has said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin should be kept in the dark about the West’s possible next steps.

Source: Radosław Sikorski in an interview with BBC World, as reported by RFM24 and European Pravda

Details: Citing French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement that he is not ruling out the possibility of deploying Western troops to Ukraine, Sikorski said that Putin should be put in a position where he is not sure what the West might do, instead of ruling out certain scenarios.

When asked whether Poland was considering sending its troops to Ukraine, Sikorski said he was not going to reveal Poland’s plans in order to "make Putin wonder what we will do and not always reassure him that we won’t do certain things."

"We are spending the biggest proportion of our GDP [on defence] in NATO, 4% of GDP, and we might go higher next year," Sikorski said.

When asked whether Russia posed a direct threat to Poland, Sikorski said that he does not think Putin will be reckless enough to attack a NATO member state, but added that he was reckless enough to attack Ukraine, something that has contributed to his status as a war criminal.

Sikorski said the war can only end when Putin realises that the costs of continuing it, both in terms of human lives and in terms of financial losses, outweighs the importance of the goal he wanted to achieve. However, Sikorski said, it might take time for Putin to arrive at this realisation.

Finally, when asked about the role of diplomacy in bringing this war to an end, Sikorski said that there are a lot of potential intermediaries, including Türkiye and the UN. He added that although China could force Putin to end this war, he currently sees no indications that Putin wants to negotiate.

Background:

• Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto believes that French President Emmanuel Macron’s willingness to consider deploying Western troops to Ukraine has aggravated tension around Russia’s war against Ukraine.
• In late February 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron said following a meeting of European leaders that he proposed that Western countries send their troops to Ukraine.
• Macron later said that he maintains his opinion that European troops could be deployed in Ukraine and thinks it would be the right thing to do.

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