Poland’s Sikorski Says Europe Deserves Role in Ukraine Talks

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(Bloomberg) — Europe’s funding for Ukraine’s defense means it should get a seat at the table in US-brokered peace negotiations, according to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.

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“Europe is paying for Ukraine’s defense, the US is earning money from Ukraine’s defense,” Sikorski told Bloomberg TV in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. A Ukrainian victory is in the continent’s strategic interests, he said.

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Sikorski’s comments come after UK Defense Secretary John Healey said on Thursday that allies have pledged as much as $35 billion in new military aid to Ukraine to strengthen its air defenses after a series of massive Russian air strikes on energy infrastructure and civilian targets. 

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President Donald Trump’s envoys are intensifying efforts to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying this month that the US has set a deadline of finishing negotiations by June. Recent talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine haven’t involved any representatives from Europe, adding to concern on the continent that a deal could be brokered without its input.

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The Polish foreign minister also pushed back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s framing of his forces’ victory in Ukraine as inevitable. 

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“Ukraine is not losing this war; Ukraine is imposing huge costs on Russia,” Sikorski said, adding that Moscow is running out of resources and had sold some gold reserves to maintain its war economy. 

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He pointed to Russia’s inability to fully seize control of the Donbas, an area of eastern Ukraine which Moscow demands in any peace settlement. In recent weeks Russia’s grinding offensives there have led to incremental gains at the cost of huge casualties. Western officials have assessed that Moscow is now losing troops faster than it can replace them, Bloomberg earlier reported.

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Still, Sikorski urged Europe to remain vigilant of future threats from Moscow. “Russian capabilities aren’t what we thought — they can’t win in Donbas — but their intentions are much worse,” he said.

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That warning comes amid mounting concern in Europe that the US will disengage from the continent’s defense, leaving it to deter potential future Russian aggression largely alone.

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Sikorski said that US demands for Europe to shoulder the burden for its own defense were not new and that the continent hadn’t always kept past promises on the issue, leading to a “new frankness” between the US and other NATO allies. 

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“Europe should get serious,” he said. “We Europeans now need to stand up land forces.”

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(Updates with further quotes and context from fourth paragraph.)

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