FIRST ON FOX — Poland is keeping a critical eye on attempts to broker a peace deal between Kiev and Moscow as the deadly war in Ukraine continues to rage and as doubts remain about Russia’s next move.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first set the parameters for a “peace formula” last October and urged G-7 leaders at a summit in Japan on Sunday to help coordinate diplomatic steps, along with assistance ongoing military, to help end the war.
But one of the main obstacles that Kiev and Moscow face in finding a peaceful solution at the end of the war is that neither side is willing to concede territorial claims.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and Polish President Andrzej Duda meet in Kiev, Ukraine August 23, 2022. (Press service/handout via Reuters)
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China has said it plans to work with Russia, a key ally, and Ukraine to find a peaceful solution, though Western officials remain skeptical. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Polish Consul General Adrian Kubicki in New York warned against any “artificial peace plans”.
“We have a very special perspective on Russia,” he said. “For the past 300 years, over 250, Poland has spent under Russian slavery, so we understand that this [war] it wasn’t just about Ukraine, about conquering a piece of territory.”
“It’s actually a bigger imperialist plan to conquer not just Ukraine but expand Russia and go beyond that country,” he added.
Kubicki warned that any plan that doesn’t take serious steps to stop Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and beyond will only help Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has argued that the breakup of the Soviet Union was Russia’s greatest failure .
“If we decide to push towards [an] artificial peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, this will only buy time for Russia to rebuild its military capabilities and, within a five-year span, a ten-year span, prepare and launch another invasion and another threat.” said the Polish diplomat “I think it’s enough, and we should put an end to those Russian imperialist plans.”
Poland became the first NATO ally to send warplanes to Ukraine after promising MiG-29 fighter jets, like the one shown, in March. (Reuters/Kacper Pempel/File)
Western nations, following Poland’s footsteps, have increasingly increased their military aid to Ukraine, even as Kiev has yet to meet its main demand for F-16 fighter jets.
Poland became the first NATO ally to send warplanes to Ukraine after promising MiG-29 fighter jets in March.
The US on Friday joined the UK’s efforts to train Ukrainian fighter pilots on fourth-generation F-16 fighters, but has yet to concede to directly supply warplanes to Kiev.
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F-16 training is expected to take around 18 months and the UK, along with the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, is working to get the US-made advanced warplanes to Ukraine, according to a Reuters report. It is unclear how this coalition will succeed without direct help from Washington.
Zelenskyy over the weekend proposed holding a “global summit” in July to address possible peace plans, though he did not specify whether that would happen before or after the NATO summit also scheduled for that month.
President Joe Biden, right, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine meet at the White House. (Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Warsaw has its own main agenda item it would like to discuss at the NATO summit, Kubicki told Fox News Digital: a permanent NATO base in Poland.
Poland has had at least two missiles crash on its soil since war broke out in Ukraine. A Ukrainian missile accidentally killed two in November, followed by a Russian-made rocket that fell inside Poland’s borders in December, which is still being investigated but not believed to have resulted in any Polish casualties.
Polish, right-wing and Romanian soldiers stand next to military vehicles and a NATO flag on the sidelines of a news conference of the Polish and Lithuanian presidents near Szypliszki, Poland on July 7, 2022. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)
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“I think the center of gravity of global security has shifted, and it is right now in Poland, in our region of Western Europe. It would be an appropriate measure to take to establish such a permanent base in Poland,” said Kubicki, noting that a similar base already exists in Germany.
“The situation as we know it is not very stable,” he continued. “And although we are all helping the Ukrainians make headway and push back the Russian invaders, war has its own dynamics and we need to be ready for any turn of events.”
