Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said today at the European Union summit in Brussels that if, due to Europe's bad decisions, Ukraine is forced to capitulate, it will mean that Poland's independence is also directly threatened.
Tusk told Polish journalists during a break at the summit that EU leaders had unofficially reached an agreement to use Russian funds frozen in Europe to help Ukraine, and that they now face hours of painful negotiations on technical details and guarantees for countries, primarily Belgium, that could be affected by Russian retaliation.
"A step forward has been taken. There are no more stories about why, because it's too risky. Everyone says OK. We need to somehow solve the problem of using Russian funds for the benefit of Ukraine. There is unity there," said Tusk.
The second option advocated by some countries that did not want Russian funds to be used for a reparations loan to Ukraine, that the EU take out a loan for Ukraine, is, according to the Polish Prime Minister, meeting with less enthusiasm than the option with Russian funds.
"The most important thing in the current situation is to help Ukraine, that is, to protect Ukraine from capitulating, to prevent Russia from gaining strategic superiority over us. Polish independence will be jeopardized if it turns out that Ukraine will have to capitulate due to Europe's bad decisions or lack of decisions," Tusk said.
Before the start of the summit, Tusk briefly posted on social media: "We are faced with a simple choice - either money today or blood tomorrow."
During the summit, Tusk told Polish journalists that the money for Ukraine, and possibly from Russian frozen assets, is deterring war from the borders of Poland and the EU.
"Everyone agrees that it is worth trying. That it would be good and fair for Europe to use Russian funds for the benefit of Ukraine, but some countries are fighting to maximize the guarantees they will receive," Tusk said.
The Polish Prime Minister recalled that Ukraine is under pressure from both Russia and the US, and that Europe's task is to defend it from these pressures that could push Ukraine towards the option of capitulation, and that frozen Russian funds would give Europe an instrument to protect itself from these pressures.
"Russia can't do anything about it, it has to accept that fact. That would be an instrument that would balance the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine a little. And the question is why is it better to use Russian and not European funds? Why should we pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine when it was bombed and destroyed by the Russians? So there is a political but also a moral aspect. Whoever attacked, whoever destroyed, let him pay," said Tusk.
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