“It is Europe that is paying for the war in Ukraine, the US is paying almost nothing anymore.” Sikorski talks strongly about the United States again

It is we, Europe, who are paying for this war, both in terms of the functioning of the Ukrainian state and its defense; The US no longer pays almost nothing, said Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski on Wednesday after the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels. Whoever pays should also have an influence on decisions, he added.

Asked whether, in his opinion, Poland was sufficiently informed about peace talks in Ukraine, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied that an important element of the discussions between NATO ministers was the issue of the division of responsibilities and costs between the US and European allies. As he added, he himself informed the meeting that since the first year of the first term of office of US President Donald Trump (2017) European NATO countries doubled their defense spending.

– (At the NATO summit – PAP) in The Hague, we committed to doubling (these spending – PAP) again by the end of the decade, which – if it happens – will mean that in absolute numbers we will spend more or less as much as the United States, and we only have regional obligations to defend Europe, not a military presence around the world. So if we do what needs to be done, the division of responsibilities will be fair, said the Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He added that “in the context of the war in Ukraine, it looks completely different”.

– It is we, Europe, who are paying for this war, both in terms of the functioning of the Ukrainian state and in terms of financing Ukraine's defense. The United States pays almost nothing anymore. This is not only PURL, this mechanism for purchasing weapons (for Ukraine – PAP). This is also the Starlink program, largely financed by Poland, he said.

– Whoever pays should also have an influence on decisions – said Sikorski. (PAP)

The minister was asked whether he was afraid that peace talks would take place without the participation of Europe, including Poland.

– We in Poland know what we think about agreements concluded over our heads. It is not only a question of funds, but above all that it will directly affect the security of Europe, as well as the future security architecture, not only of our continent, said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He also said that an important decision of the ministerial meeting was the statement by the NATO Secretary General that The NATO-Russia Council ceased to exist.

– This is something that successive Polish governments have been striving for, and now it has become a fact. These were institutions created at a time when it seemed that European security could be created with Russia. Those times, thanks to Russian decisions about invasions, are over. Today we are creating European security against Russia and it has finally found its institutional expression, said Deputy Prime Minister Sikorski.

Sikorski also referred to the support for Ukraine in the amount of $500 million under the PURL program announced on Wednesday morning, together with Germany and Norway. It assumes the purchase of American weapons by European NATO countries and Canada and their transfer to Ukraine.

– These are mainly the so-called effectors in NATO jargon, i.e. missiles for Patriot batteries, i.e. something that will protect Ukrainian cities and power plants and thermal power plants against Russian missiles. I would like to clarify that this is the same money that I have already talked about in Warsaw. Together with the Norwegians and the Germans, it is 500 million, of which 100 million is ours. $1 million for each centimeter of blowing up the Polish track by Russian saboteurs, said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He added that this is not extra money. – This is the money that we originally wanted to allocate in accordance with our EU obligations to the European defense budget, i.e. the so-called European Peace Facility, which is blocked by Hungary. So in order for this money not to be wasted and to work to stop Putin, it was redirected to American weapons for Ukraine, he explained.

From Brussels Łukasz Osiński (PAP)

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