Poland: ‘We have the right to defend ourselves’ | DW News

Poland: ‘We have the right to defend ourselves’ | DW News

we’re here at the Ukraine recovery conference in Berlin and radic shakori the Polish foreign minister joins us to speak about the days events and the the overall picture with the war right now so Ukraine’s President Vladimir zinski has been here in Berlin he’s really trying to drum up support uh for to to get countries to help Ukraine fix its critical infrastructure that’s been damaged in this war for instance the Power Systems really been in Focus um he said that half of the power system has been knocked out what do you see is Vladimir Putin’s strategy here what’s his plan is he trying to essentially freeze the ukrainians into surrender this winter yes of course that’s the clearly the plan uh which is a a war crime you’re you’re not supposed to um hit civilian uh targets uh in a war uh but um he’s an indicted war criminal already for stealing Ukrainian children so he probably feels he has nothing to lose and he’s hoping that that um we will not uh keep up our resolve but I hope this conference uh in which the chancellor of Germany the president of the uh European commission other leaders uh sketched out long-term plans for supporting Ukraine convinces him that he can’t win what about the short term and if we look at this situation with power ziny talked about expanding gas uh production this talk from the European Union about raising the amount of solar production to try to create a more resilient system but how precarious does the power system look going into this winter well it is precarious but Ukraine has a few nuclear power plants I I hope the Russians are not crazy enough to attack those and I remind you that winds blow from the west to east um so that should be a a base uh but also remember that already during the war it was actually in late February 2022 that Ukraine synchronized its electricity grid with that of the European Union and actually for most of that time since uh even during the war Ukraine was exporting electricity uh to Europe even though she lost the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in zapara uh so we will now return the favor by exporting electricity to Ukraine um and yes it is a priority we should be sending uh generate es photovoltaic panels whatever it takes to help ukrainians survive the winter now zinsky after speaking at this conference he also went to the bundestag the German Parliament and gave an address there the far right and the far left parties there which have just been emboldened in EU elections by and large boycotted his address um they’ve been making the case that the West should stop providing arms to Ukraine that they should open peace talks with with Putin what’s your message to those parties well people who who say that there is no military solution actually mean that we should um allow Putin to impose his military solution um Putin can end this war in five minutes by making one pH phone call to his defense minister uh and tell him to get his forces out of Ukraine unfortunately Ukraine doesn’t have that option but um far right and far left have been supported by Putin for many years and not just in cyber space Also financially also through agents and and uh and and meetings and political support so I’m not surprised but the center has held in the European elections um and um from what I can see the European Parliament will be as supportive of Ukraine as it has been hither to and Poland is is one of Ukraine’s very strongest supporters I mean for viewers who may not know the reasons why explain why does this count so much for Poland well first of all we were the same country with Ukraine for 400 years and secondly we were both victims of uh Russian colonialism uh Russians banned Ukrainian in the 19th century they also russified Poland uh they’ve um invaded Ukraine and Poland many many times many times more than they were themselves invaded um and uh they’ve been trying to um uh degre grade Ukraine to the status of Russian folklore they did it in the 19th century they did it through genocide in the 20th century 5 million ukrainians died in the artificially manufactured famine in the 1930s accompanied by mass murder of uh Ukrainian uh bar barriers of culture uh and they’re trying to do it again first in the occupied territories where you have uh uh stealing of children forcing people to adopt uh uh Russian citizenship drafting illegally drafting people into the Russian army it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s cultural genocide at the very least um which is completely unacceptable uh under the principles that we’ve established after two bloody world wars Putin may not get away with this and Poland is right right up on of course Ukraine’s borders in fact some Russian missiles have been flying over polish territory in fact you’ve been saying today that one missile landed close to your home tell us what happened uh yeah Russian missiles get uh uh uh sent towards Ukraine launched from Russia they uh they fly along the Polish bow Russian border and then they make a turn across polish territory and hit uh the Ukrainian city of leiv uh um some others the Russians lose control of and this particular one you’re referring to uh last year flew across 2/3 of Poland and landed 10 kilm from my house near the Polish city of bidos um which is in straight line about 200 maybe 250 kilm from uh the border with Germany so this is much closer to you than some some German people think now what happens if next time a missile like that lands in Poland and kills polish citizens what happens well two polish citizens have already died because uh a Russian missile was shot down by Ukrainian um air defenses and the the debris uh killed uh two polish citizens so uh we need so this is affecting NATO territory and we have the right to to defend ourselves so that means you could see NATO shooting down these missiles in future well certainly if they if they cross into NATO territory we we certainly have the hope to Def defend our own airspace because just very very briefly the uh the ukrainians have been saying well the West shot down Iranian missiles that were flying over Israel flying towards Israel why doesn’t the West do the same to Russian missiles aiming for Ukraine we have this discussion but no decisions have yet been made Thank you very muchowski

Vladimir Putin is testing Europe’s resolve in his war for Ukraine, says Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski. Speaking to DW’s Richard Walker at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, Sikorski described Russia’s attacks on the Ukrainian power system as “war crimes,” saying the situation this winter would be “precarious.” But he said Europe would rally to Ukraine’s support, providing it with the power it needs. Sikorski also spoke out about the stakes of the war for Poland — and how a Russian missile landed near his home in western Poland, far from the Ukrainian front line. He discussed what steps NATO might need to take to protect its territory — and whether shooting down Russian missiles might be the next step.

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