Leszek Szymański/PAP
Poland’s prime minister has said his country stands ready to assist Ukraine in natural gas matters and also those related to defence, and with supporting economic stability.
Speaking during a trip to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, where he met his Ukrainian counterpart, Denys Shmyhal, Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland was also ready “to send Ukraine humanitarian aid, which we are already doing.”
Russia has deployed around 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, prompting fears that it intends to invade its western neighbour. According to military experts, there is a real threat of Russian aggression.
“We stand today arm in arm with the Ukrainian state in order to assist in the defence of its threatened security, threatened by its Russian neighbour,” Morawiecki said at a joint press conference with Shmyhal.
“I am here to manifest Polish solidarity with the Ukrainian state,” Morawiecki continued, adding that, “a sovereign Ukraine is in the interests of the whole of Europe.”
The Polish prime minister said that Central and Eastern Europe did not suffer earthquakes or volcanic eruptions but that being so close to Russia “we feel like we’re living at the foot of a volcano.
“That’s why we realise, like few in Europe, what value security has, how important allies are, the support of neighbours in a situation of threat, and we want to give that support to the Ukrainian state,” Morawiecki said.
He said Poland was striving to garner such support from other EU countries and Nato member states.
The Ukrainian prime minister attributed his country’s position in the international community to Polish help.
“‘Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’ has become possible and we owe that to a great extent to our Polish friends,” Shmyhal said.
“I very much value the significant support of Poland, our friend,” he went on. “It is to a large extent the result of intensive dialogue and the effective cooperation of presidents (of Ukraine – PAP) Volodymy Zelensky and (of Poland – PAP) Andrzej Duda.”
Shmyhal thanked Morawiecki for standing by “Ukrainian freedom, democracy, security and the right of Ukrainians to take sovereign decisions concerning the fate of their country.”
He added that, “today we are working closely together with Poland in conditions of ongoing Russian aggression and Poland’s practical help will strengthen our readiness to effectively counteract Russia.”
Shmyhal went on to express hope that “in the near future we will be able to launch a new regional cooperation format: Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain. “In conditions of ongoing Russian aggression, it is worth signing a trilateral document on cooperation to strengthen regional security,” Shmyhal said.
Morawiecki added that the foreign ministers of those three countries were working on such a format in order to enhance cooperation in many fields.