Speaking at the Polish-Ukrainian Partnership in Building Future Energy Security, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, “In two terms of office, we [the government] have led Poland’s to full independence from Russia. The figures speak for themselves: zero Russian oil and zero Russian gas. Today, this is the energy balance of trade with Russia.”
Morawiecki stressed that “after Moscow’s gas blackmail of Poland and Ukraine, after the attack on Georgia, after the annexation of Crimea, Poland knew that the hydrocarbon monopoly in Europe was as important to Putin as tanks and ammunition”.
“This is how the Kremlin entwined the whole of Europe with its gas network, its pipeline network, with its natural resources, making it more and more dependent on itself,” the prime minister went on to say.
‘Zero Russian oil and zero Russian gas’
“Our government immediately reversed the vectors of the state’s energy policy, we started the process of moving away from Russian energy resources, we built Baltic Pipe, which is the Baltic gas pipeline through Denmark to Norway, we expanded the Świnoujście gas port, we signed contracts for the supply of American gas, for the supply of gas from different directions from all over the world, he pointed out,” Morawiecki added.
The Prime Minister also declared that the goal of the government is to make Poland an energy hub for the whole of Central Europe. “Perhaps, based on Russian gas, this was Germany’s plan. This plan collapsed like a house of cards,” the PM stated.
He noted that the Polish government bases its plan on realistically built interconnectors and gas pipelines, as well as plans to build modern nuclear energy in the future.
“We are also talking about the Rivne-Chelm connection. There is also a nuclear power plant there, and we can use green energy at an accelerated rate by importing it to Poland,” he said.
Morawiecki pointed out that since last year Ukrainian nuclear power plants have been fueled by Westinghouse, a company with which Poland signed an agreement to supply technology for the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant.
PM about giving MiG-29s
Some time ago Poland said it would send Soviet-designed MiG-29 jets to Ukraine as part of a coalition of countries. However, with Kyiv’s allies taking a cautious approach to the transfer of fighter jets it has been unclear how long such a process might take.
“That could happen in the coming 4-6 weeks,” PM Morawiecki told a news conference on Tuesday when asked how long it could be before Warsaw supplied the fighter jets.