Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk hammered home his support for Ukraine, engaged according to him in a fight “between good and evil” against Russia, Monday during a visit to Kiev, where he also raised the problem competitive between Polish and Ukrainian truck drivers.
“I am not ashamed to use big words: it is here, in Ukraine, that the global front between good and evil passes,” Tusk said at a joint press conference with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I want it to be heard in all European capitals, in the United States and Canada, everywhere in the free world,” insisted Mr. Tusk.
The head of the Polish government declared that his country would “do everything possible to increase Ukraine’s chances of victory”.
For his part, the Ukrainian president welcomed “a new package of Polish defense measures”.
“We appreciate this continued support. There is a new form of cooperation to purchase weapons on a larger scale to meet Ukraine’s needs — a Polish loan for Ukraine,” he noted, without further details.
The former President of the European Council, who became head of the Polish government on December 13, promised to work to ensure that “the entire EU takes your European ambitions seriously”.
The Ukrainian president reiterated his belief that “Ukraine must be part of the EU, both in terms of values and because of its economy, a large market.”
Mr. Zelensky also regretted that Ukraine was not part of NATO, because, according to him, “there are several skeptical countries”. “Officially, they fear an escalation on the part of Russia,” he said. “It seems offensive because it suggests that this is not their war. It’s humiliating and treacherous […] We are fighting against this skepticism,” Mr. Zelensky said.
Disgruntled Polish truckers
Mr. Tusk indicated that Warsaw and kyiv will “invest together” in companies based in the two countries, whose production will “increase Polish, Ukrainian and European defense capabilities”.
According to him, the two capitals will also find “good solutions” to the problem of Ukrainian wheat imports which worries farmers, but also to that of transporters.
“We will look for them in our bilateral talks […] perhaps there will be no need to involve international institutions,” he hoped.
Polish truckers, who have blocked the border with Ukraine since November to denounce unfair competition from Kiev, suspended their movement last week, awaiting the results of talks between the new government in Kiev and in Brussels and the steps expected from the new coalition in power in Poland.
Drone attack
Hours before the visit was announced, kyiv said Russian forces had attacked Ukraine with eight Iranian-designed drones, but its air defense systems had shot them down.
For kyiv, controlling the country’s airspace is a priority this year. Officials have urged the West to provide more adequate systems.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the drones were launched from the southern region of Primorsko-Akhtarsk and then shot down in the southern and central regions of Ukraine.
No damage was immediately reported.
This attack follows Ukrainian operations against regions bordering Russia, targeting oil storage facilities.
Sources in the Ukrainian security sector have claimed responsibility for some of these attacks to AFP, but kyiv and the Ukrainian army remain very discreet about the operations carried out inside Russia.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, however, attributed responsibility to kyiv for a fire that occurred last weekend in the port of Ust-Luga, near Saint Petersburg.
“The kyiv regime continues to show its bestial face. It hits civilian infrastructure, people,” Peskov said on Monday when asked about the fire at the natural gas terminal.
Although the sprawling front line across eastern and southern Ukraine has barely moved in a year, Russian forces continue to shell towns and villages near the fighting.
At least one person was killed in a strike Monday morning in an industrial zone in Kramatorsk, in the east of the country, around 07:30 GMT.
In front of an administrative building, with a destroyed roof and blown out windows, the street and sidewalks were dotted with small impacts from shrapnel from a rocket or missile, AFP journalists noted.
On another street running along one side of the building, the body of a dead man lay at the wheel of his car, the left front door of which was open.