'Over Our Dead Bodies': Poland's Sikorski Warns Against Returning Frozen Russian Assets

I think what Speaker Csarjastis said is important, namely, we don't just need to have culture and to be in the right in facing evil. The side that is right has to have the power to defend it. And, you know, we had all the right in the world in 1939. We didn't have the power. And we have to create it. We are behind the curve. I personally regret that the first two, two and a half years of the war were wasted as regards rearmament. We are now catching up. I believe that by the end of the decade, we will have a combined army, even just around the Baltic and only Eastern front, that Putin would be crazy to attack. But if this is our calendar, that would be too late for Ukraine. So the key thing is to sustain Ukraine during this coming winter because I think Putin only has two more cards stealth mobilization and general winter as they call it in Russia and we have to make a huge financial military in terms of supplies and humanitarian effort to help Ukraine. Polish journalist asked President Trump this question in Washington and President Trump said truthfully that he helped to get our president elected. And so I'm counting on our MAGA president to use the friendship that he has with President Trump to do two things. Number one, to secure a permanent U.S. base in Poland. And number two, to explain to him that Putin is the aggressor and Zelensky is the victim of aggression. And you end the war by persuading the aggressor to limit his level of ambition, not by asking the victim to capitulate. We were both in New York and we listened to Lavrov's speech at the Security Council, which was mostly a rant against Europe, which told me that they've just realized that actually they can't fix this just with the United States, that Europe is paying for this war, Europe is consistent in supporting Ukraine, and will continue to do so irrespective of what anybody else does. And by the way, on assets, as Johan said, this is a complicated issue. We are working on it. But there is also some rumors that some people are expecting these assets to be released back to Russia. I don't think I'm speaking just for myself in saying over our dead bodies. Well, let's look at it domain by domain. At sea, a country without a navy has blockaded a country with a powerful navy. And neither country can export its grain. And as Johan was saying, Egypt and the global south needs this grain. But the Russians are not prevailing at sea. On land, Putin is completely stuck. He's fighting in Donbass, in fact, for the 13th year. And he still cannot conquer. And our assessments are it would still take hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers to conquer the remaining fortresses in Donbass. In the air, the planes of neither country can fly over the territory of the other country. I would say the Russians have an advantage because they drop these glide, these huge glide bombs over their own territory, which do damage in the kill zone. And then both sides use deep strike capacity. Ukraine is attacking refineries, which is having an effect, and data centers, which is also having an effect. The Russians are trying to terrorize cities. Now, ask the ministers in whose countries London was attacked and Hamburg was attacked, does it lead to the morale collapse? It doesn't. You can kill a lot of people, you can commit a lot of war crimes, but it doesn't end the war. um what will and but putin still thinks he has these cards so i think the the horizon that we have to look to is the middle of next year uh yes there must be accountability not only for the strikes against civilian targets uh in the territories controlled by the ukrainian government but also for the horrible things that are happening in occupied territories there are filtration camps, the stealing of children, there is cultural erasure. It's happening there, not in Europe. And the International Criminal Court has already been mentioned. The charge for war crimes against Vladimir Putin was issued under the Polish presidency, the Polish chairman of that court. There is also a special tribunal for dealing with the crimes in Ukraine, of which Poland is a founding member. But for it to happen, the same thing has to happen that led to the prosecution of the guilty in Rwanda or Yugoslavia. You first have to win the war, because only a subsequent Russian government will send some of those criminals to the Hague. And so the talk of the military stuff is relevant. On Europe, I'd like credit to be given where credit is due. Yes, we are tardy. Yes, we are a confederation. We have friction in coming to decisions. But now that Hungary has dropped its veto, we have billions of refunds from the European Peace Facility, which will enable several member states to increase funding for Ukraine. And we have a 150 billion euro cheap loan to member states to upgrade their defense industries. This is not nothing. Some of these programs will be done together with Ukraine. On frozen assets, please don't tell us. We've been frustrated about this for years. Belgium says a thing that is reasonable, namely that when the Russians sue them, They cannot be left with the liability on their own. We are working, the European Commission is working on finding a legal instrument that will spread some of the risk. And I hope we arrive at it as soon as possible. I believe that in the medium term, we no longer need to be panicky about Russia. The threat is real, but their power is not what it seemed. And if we just do what we've already pledged ourselves to do at the Hague summit and at the Ankara summit, then we will, by the end of the decade, we'll have the kinds of militaries, Germany, Poland, others, that Putin cannot successfully take on. What's at stake is not whether we will be occupied. What's at stake is Europe's status in the global division of power. whether the triumvirate that is trying to divide the world into spheres of influence is composed of the United States, China, and Russia. And they're ready to eat us up. And then we are just suppliers of data and tourist attractions. Or whether we are that third leg. And don't ask me which I prefer.