Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has expressed his confidence in the survival of Ukraine and has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin overestimated his plans.
In an interview with the Wprost weekly, the head of the Polish government offered his view on the Russian offensive in Ukraine, telling the publication he was of the view that Putin had not anticipated the level of resistance Ukraine has shown to date.
“He has dreamed of either being welcomed with flowers or taking over Ukraine within a couple of days,” Morawiecki said. “Now, he’s taking heavy losses, and it’s becoming apparent to the world that he is a pariah.
“He has managed to unite the West, and this wasn’t the case for a considerable time before. Not to mention digging the Mariana Trench between the Ukrainians, also the Russian-speaking part, and Russia,” Morawiecki added.
The Polish prime minister claimed Moscow hadn’t predicted a scenario where Europe opted to diversify its suppliers of oil and gas.
“Putin was counting on making the meager West more dependent on his oil and gas shipments, but what we have now is an epochal turn in the European Union’s energy policy; each country is creating a path of complete independence from Russian gas and oil,” Morawiecki revealed.
Commenting on reports in recent days by Russian sources confirming the country has suffered heavy casualties in neighboring Ukraine, Morawiecki placed the blame firmly at the feet of Vladimir Putin.
“[He] has caused his army, that was being proclaimed the second-best in the world, to become completely discredited. I believe Russia has no chance of winning in Ukraine, but we need to help this brave nation,” the Polish leader claimed.
Morawiecki also discussed the influx of the war in Ukraine on economic situation in Poland.
He said that before the war, due to the VAT reductions to gas and oil, as well as energy tax cuts, the inflation in Poland had been brought down by 2 to 3.5 percentage points. Now, that a crisis has started, the prices will most likely increase in March, Morawiecki warned, declaring that the Polish government would introduce new elements of the “anti-Putin economic shield” to combat the challenges the Polish economy will face.
“I will not accept the situation, where gas bills for households are getting several times higher year after year and I call upon the European Commission to start acting. I have recently brought it up in Paris: You need to implement a gas price cap that will be agreed on by the EU countries,” Morawiecki told the publication.
In his opinion, this policy should be paid for using the EU budget: “The EU can afford this. It is time for it to start acting decisively. Putting money in Russian pockets needs to stop.”
