Vasyl Zvarych made the comment in an interview with private broadcaster TVN24 on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian authorities hosted a defence industry forum in Kyiv. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the event attracted over 250 firms from 30 countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
During the event, officials established a Defence Industry Alliance featuring 38 companies from 19 countries, as well as signing more than 20 contracts and letters of intent, according to Ukrainian authorities.
In attendance were large delegations from the United States, as well as company representatives and officials from Britain, Germany, France, Turkey, Sweden and the Czech Republic, among other countries, the PAP news agency reported.
Asked why there were no delegates from Poland, Zvarych told TVN24: “Poland was one of the first countries to be invited to this event ... We invited all the friendly countries, including arms makers.”
Ukraine’s ambassador added that it was “a sovereign decision of every country” whether to attend the defence industry forum and Kyiv respected these decisions.
Zvarych also said in the interview that Poland and Ukraine were “working normally and developing bilateral relations.”
He added that “solidarity and unity of the free world” in supporting Ukraine was “an existential issue” for Kyiv.
Zvarych also said that the Ukrainian president’s recent remarks to the United Nations General Assembly showed “how much we care about preserving unity.”
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said that Poland “firmly rejects” Zelensky’s words.
Without naming any countries, Ukraine’s president suggested at the UN that Poland, Hungary and Slovakia were “making a thriller” from the issue of Ukrainian grain, according to news outlets.
Zelensky added: “They may seem to play their own role but in fact they are helping set the stage to a Moscow actor.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland said on Monday that any gaps in the solidarity and unity of the free world “benefit [Russian President Vladimir] Putin” and that “our future depends” on maintaining that solidarity and unity, the PAP news agency reported.
Monday is day 586 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, president.gov.ua
