Poland says Russia will negotiate only under greater economic pressure

(MENAFN) Poland’s foreign minister has said that Moscow is unlikely to engage meaningfully in peace negotiations with Ukraine unless escalating economic pressure convinces President Vladimir Putin that continuing the war will not achieve Russia’s goals, according to reports.

Speaking in a televised interview, Radosław Sikorski argued that a durable peace can only emerge once Russia’s ruling circles accept that the invasion of Ukraine was a strategic failure and that attempts to rebuild an empire through military force are futile.

“This is the problem with dictators,” he said. “When someone has been in power for (over) 20 years, very few people tell him what reality actually looks like.”

Sikorski emphasized that long-term, coordinated economic sanctions remain the most effective tool for altering the Kremlin’s calculations. He noted that Poland has consistently pushed within the European Union for tougher measures targeting Russia’s banking system, energy exports and access to Western technologies.

He explained that restrictions on Russian oil revenues — including price caps and limits on shipping and insurance — have already narrowed Moscow’s financial flexibility, even if the political impact takes time to materialize.

The foreign minister also pointed to Russia’s increasing dependence on economically and politically unstable partners, such as Venezuela, as evidence of the growing costs of isolation from Western markets. He said energy cooperation between Moscow and Caracas highlights Russia’s shrinking network of partners and exposes it to further risks linked to sanctions, logistical hurdles and volatile global oil prices.

Sikorski warned against any peace proposals that would allow Russia to keep territory in eastern Ukraine, arguing that such an outcome would amount to rewarding aggression. He added that even if the Kremlin were to limit its ambitions to the Donbas region, Russia’s territorial advaces over the past year would still leave it decades away from conquering Ukraine entirely.

He also cautioned against freezing the conflict without firm security guarantees for Kyiv, stressing that Ukraine must be able to protect its borders and pursue integration with the European Union once the fighting ends.

“Otherwise, we have a recipe for another war,” he said.

Addressing claims that Poland has been marginalized in international discussions on Ukraine, Sikorski rejected that view and cited the Polish prime minister’s recent participation in high-level talks in Berlin.

Turning to broader transatlantic security issues, Sikorski said Europe must continue strengthening its defense industry regardless of who wins the next US presidential election. He warned that a possible shift in US military focus toward Asia could reduce Washington’s capacity to support European security.

“By the end of this decade, we must have armed forces that Putin will not dare to test,” he said.

He also echoed earlier criticism from US President Donald Trump regarding Europe’s long-standing reliance on the so-called peace dividend.

“President (Donald) Trump was right from the beginning in saying that Europe had benefited from the peace dividend for too long,” he said. “We heard that message and doubled our defense spending.”

Sikorski added that the deployment of US troops in Poland serves the interests of both countries. He said Warsaw contributes roughly $15,000 annually per American soldier and noted that stationing forces in Poland is more cost-effective for the United States than keeping them at home. He added that Washington plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in expanding US military bases in Poland.

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