Bessent: I doubt Putin would attack Ukraine if its economy was the size of the Polish economy

The Polish economy is one of the greatest success stories after the fall of the Berlin Wall – said US Finance Minister Scott Bessent on Wednesday at Fox Business. He expressed doubt whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin would attack Ukraine if its economy were the size of the Polish economy.

In an interview with the Bessent television station, he was asked what to do to stop Russia and war in Ukraine. – This is a question about what Europeans can do. This war is in their yard – answered the minister.

– The US wants to do more, but Europeans have to join us. The president (USA Donald) Trump unilaterally imposed a 25 % duties on India for buying Russian oil-he emphasized.

Bessent said that India buy Russian oil with a discount, process the raw material, and the products created in this way go to Europe. – Europe finances a war against it. We want our European allies to take a step forward and focus on the sources of the Russian economy and its oil – added Bessent.

He noted that Russia has made very little progress since the beginning of the invasion, the Russian army seems, in his opinion, “stunned”, and Putin has recently begun to violate NATO's borders.

– I can say that the US does not intend to engage soldiers or anything similar. We will sell weapons to Europeans, and they can pass it on to Ukraine. Trump wants this war to end – he added.

The interviewer Maria Bartiromo reminded that the day before she talked to the studio with the President of the Republic of Poland Karol Nawrocki, who visited New York, and asked Bessenta about Russian drones in the aircraft of Poland and Romania.

– The Russians are testing Europeans, and the European position must be exacerbated. They must put everything on the table that concerns economic sanctions – the minister replied.

“Poles are great allies,” he declared, reminding that Poland spends 5 percent. Defense GDP.

– The Polish economy is one of the greatest success stories after the fall of the Berlin Wall – he assessed. He noted that at the time of the wall fall, at the end of 1989, the economy of Poland and Ukraine was the same size, and now “the Polish economy is three times greater.”

“If the Ukrainian economy were the same size as the Polish economy, Ukraine would finance its war itself and I doubt Putin would attack,” Bessent announced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBQ7EOXFEE

From Washington Natalia Dziurdzińska (PAP)

ndz/ akl/ mhr/