Poland’s Zbigniew Rau and Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba made the remarks during a panel discussion at an international security conference in Warsaw on Thursday.
‘Russia aims to divide the free world’
The Polish foreign minister told the Strategic Utility of Unity panel that “Russia aims to divide the free world on every possible issue.”
He said that “Russia is viewing the West as a threat to its imperial identity” and "is therefore seeking to divide us, to look for … divisions within our camp or to create them.”
Rau added: “Russia is strong vis-à-vis us when we are divided.”
‘Ukraine must be supported in every possible way to defend itself’
Rau told the conference that “every state that belongs to the free world … has every reason to be very proud of the level of unity we have managed to reach behind Ukraine.”
He said that beyond the “unity of declaration” it was important to “show unity in supporting Ukraine in every possible way to defend itself because it is entitled to do it given the provisions of the United Nations charter.”
He stressed that “unity must be goal-oriented.”
Rau said that, from the beginning of the war, Poland’s stance was to help Ukraine “as much as possible and as soon as possible,” a position that was not shared by all partners and allies.
He noted that when Poland had moved to send over 300 tanks and then MiG-29 jets to Ukraine, it was criticised for going “much too far” and being a “unity breaker.”
‘Ukrainians are fighting for our freedom’
Looking ahead to the July summit of the NATO alliance in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Polish foreign minister said that NATO allies “should show a lot of respect and gratitude to our Ukrainian friends and partners ... because they are fighting and paying the highest price for the values which we all share.”
He stated: “Every person in our part of Europe is aware of the fact they are fighting for our freedom."
Rau added: “First let the Ukrainians state their expectations concerning the summit. And then I can declare it - we are ready to support it.”
‘You cannot win' against Russia 'without unity’: Ukraine’s Kuleba
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s top diplomat, who was speaking via video link from Kyiv, said: “When you tackle any global challenge like Russia is, you cannot win without unity.”
He added that "unity is required not only in words, but also in actions."
Kuleba told the conference that “in 2014, when Russia was illegally annexing Crimea, there was Western unity in words, but there was no unity in actions.”
He argued that this lack of Western unity allowed Russia “to succeed” and “to spill over the conflict to Donbas, then years later to the entire Ukraine by launching large-scale invasion.”
The Ukrainian foreign minister said that, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country in February last year, “fortunately there has been unity” against “common enemy” and “it is essential to maintain unity.”
Kuleba stated that “unity is crucial” regarding Ukraine’s NATO membership, but added that a “lack of unity should not be used as an excuse for not making crucial decisions, because if there is time to make crucial decisions and build unity it is now.”
He noted that initially there was no unity regarding support for Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union, yet now Ukraine has EU candidate status.
Kuleba said it was essential to achieve Western unity in support of Ukraine’s victory over Russian aggression, as well as on “Ukraine’s NATO membership, aviation coalition and new strong sanctions on Russia.”
Looking ahead to NATO’s July summit, Ukraine’s top diplomat said: “In Vilnius, we would like to see a decision on defining a certain algorithm of Ukraine’s accession.”
He added: “Any step that the allies will be able to make towards Ukrainian membership in NATO will be welcome.”
Friday is day 450 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, dziennik.pl
