2025-10-09 18:34
publication
2025-10-09 18:34
Negotiations with Russia are possible, but it must be done in two stages: first, a show of force must be made, and then a dialogue must be initiated. Now the arithmetic of war proves that Putin does not want peace talks, wrote Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski in an article published on Thursday in the New York Times.
“There is a saying that every US administration rediscovers Russia. Almost every president in recent decades entered the White House, hoping for a new beginning, but the result was always the same: the more you offer Moscow, the more it demands,” Sikorski writes at the beginning of his text.
He recalls that in the morning of September 10, over 20 Russian drones invaded Polish airspace and emphasizes: “My government is sure that it was a provocation organized by the Russian regime.”
Just over a week later, three Russian fighter jets violated Estonian airspace. “These and other incidents are further proof that the Kremlin is not interested in peace, but in escalation (of the conflict),” continues the deputy prime minister.
Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has tried various diplomatic solutions to achieve peace in Ukraine, created the position of special envoy for peacekeeping missions and nominated a person to this position whom the Kremlin could accept; American diplomats met with their Russian counterparts on neutral ground, and the president's special envoy visited Moscow several times, the minister reminds.
“Trump personally and publicly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin” to stop the attacks on Ukraine, writing on social media “STOP!”, and “when Putin ignored this request, Trump offered him a one-on-one meeting in Alaska,” the foreign minister enumerates.
“But the arithmetic of war speaks for itself,” he emphasizes and adds: Russia's military expenditure for 2025 is estimated at about $190 billion, 3.4 percent more than last year. more than in 2024. Expenditures on defense and security for 2026 are forecast to constitute approximately 40%. the entire budget of Russia. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the number of Russian soldiers in Ukraine is expected to increase to 150,000 by the end of the year.
As Sikorski estimates, “Putin accepted the invitation to Alaska, but not to negotiate in good faith – he wanted to buy time. His long-term goals have not changed: to rebuild the Russian empire, undermine transatlantic security guarantees, divide the West and (…) weaken the United States.”
“But negotiating with Russia is possible. (…) The negotiations between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that helped end the Cold War could not have occurred had Reagan not first exploited the USSR's weaknesses by exerting intense military and economic pressure, including supporting groups and countries that a challenge to the Soviets around the world, like the Polish Solidarity movement and the Afghan mujahideen,” writes the deputy prime minister.
However, he estimates that Putin has not yet found himself in such a position that the scale of pressure would force him to negotiate. The only way to make him realize that he will not recover from the mistake of invading Ukraine is to continue supporting Kiev financially and militarily and to shake the foundations of the Russian economy.
“For a good start, self-proclaimed acolytes of the MAGA movement in Hungary and Slovakia should listen to Trump and stop buying Russian oil, and the over $200 billion of Russian assets frozen in Europe should finally be used to provide financial aid to the victims of Putin's war,” Sikorski proposes.
“The largest country in the world does not need more land. It should take better care of what is already within its internationally recognized borders. The Russian authorities must understand that their attempt to rebuild Europe's last empire is doomed to failure,” concludes the deputy prime minister. (PAP)
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