FIRST ON FOX — Poland is keeping a critical eye on attempts to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow as the deadly war in Ukraine continues to rage and as questions remain over Russia’s next move.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first laid out 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 the ongoing military assistance, to help bring about an end to the war.
But one major hurdle Kyiv and Moscow face in finding a peaceful solution to the end of the war is neither side is willing to concede on territorial demands.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and Polish President Andrzej Duda meet in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 23, 2022. (Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
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China has said it plans to work with Russia, a top 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 plan.”
“We have a very special perspective on Russia,” he said. “From the past 300 years, over 250, Poland spent under Russian slavery, so we understand that this [war] was not really exclusively about Ukraine, about taking over a piece of the territory.”
“It’s actually a bigger imperialist plan to take over not only Ukraine but expand Russia and go beyond that country,” he added.
Kubicki warned that any plan that does not take serious steps to stop Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and beyond will only aid Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has argued that breaking up the Soviet Union was Russia’s greatest failure.
“If we decide on pushing towards [an] artificial peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, this will only buy Russia time to rebuild their military capabilities, and within a five-year span, 10-year span, prepare and start another invasion and another threat,” the Polish diplomat said. “I think it’s enough, and we should put a full stop on those imperialist Russian plans.”
Poland became the first NATO ally to send Ukraine warplanes after it pledged MiG-29 fighter planes, like the one shown, in March. (Reuters/Kacper Pempel/File)
Western nations, on the heels of Poland, have increasingly ramped up their military aid to Ukraine, though Kyiv has yet to secure its chief request for F-16 fighter planes.
Poland became the first NATO ally to send Ukraine warplanes after it pledged MiG-29 fighter jets in March.
The U.S. on Friday joined U.K. efforts to train Ukrainian fighter pilots on the fourth-generation F-16s fighters, but it has yet to concede on directly providing the warplanes to Kyiv.
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Training on F-16s is expected to take some 18 months, and the U.K., along with the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, are working on getting Ukraine the advanced U.S.-made warplanes, according to a Reuters report. It remains unclear how this coalition will succeed without the direct aid from Washington.
Zelenskyy over the weekend proposed holding a “global summit” in July to address any peace plans, though he did not specify if this would come before or after the NATO summit also slotted for that month.
President Joe Biden, right, and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet at the White House. (Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Warsaw has its own major agenda item it would like discussed at the NATO summit, Kubicki told Fox News Digital: a permanent NATO base in Poland.
Poland has had at least two missiles crash into its territory since the war in Ukraine broke out. One Ukrainian missile accidentally killed two in November, followed by a Russian-made rocket that fell within Poland’s borders in December – which is still under investigation but is not believed to have resulted in any Polish causalities.
Polish, right, and Romanian soldiers stand next to military vehicles and a NATO flag on the sidelines of a press 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’s right now in Poland, in our region in Western Europe. It would be an appropriate measure to take to establish such a permanent base in Poland,” Kubicki said, 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 Ukrainians to make progress and push back Russian invaders, war has its own dynamics, and we have to be ready for each course of events.”