Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview with German daily Die Bild published on Thursday that Poland would be ready to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if NATO allies collectively decide to do so. .
“If it was the decision of the whole of NATO, I would be in favor of sending these fighters,” he said.
The Polish leader said, “My assessment is based on what NATO countries decide together,” that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “a very serious war,” in which Poland and other NATO countries “are not participating.” emphatically said.
The decision to supply fighters to Ukraine required “strategic consideration of the entire NATO alliance”.
Top Ukrainian officials have escalated their position in recent days. Public lobbying campaign for US-made F-16 fighter jetsArguing that they are urgently needed to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.
The United States and Germany have ruled out any deliveries of the fighter jets to Ukraine for now. Other NATO members such as France and the Netherlands have said they would be more open to the idea, however, neither the Netherlands nor France had received any official requests from Ukraine to send fighter jets.
In January, the German government – under pressure from allies including Poland – approved sending German-built Leopard 2 battle tanks for Kyiv.
The Polish leader told Die Bild that Berlin’s Ukraine policy has fueled distrust of Germany.
“I would say that a year ago there was a lot of trust in Germany from many other countries. And now the pendulum has swung towards mistrust,” Morawiecki said, “particularly within the family of Central and Eastern European countries and also members of the European Union.” of the Union.”
The prime minister said, “Germany has the capacity to provide far more support than it has so far, it has decision-making power within the EU, it has money for Ukraine, it has diplomatic power.”
Morawiecki explicitly criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He said in the interview that, although Scholz supports Ukraine, the chancellor “still believes it should be business as usual” with Russia.
The prime minister said he believes that talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin sends the wrong message to the world.
“I think it’s wrong because it only gives Putin oxygen and achieves nothing. Putin actually achieves his goals with this kind of talk, because he shows it to the rest of the world and his people,” Look, I’m in great demand, everyone wants to talk to me, everything depends on me’, said the Polish leader.
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Alex Marquardt contributed to this post.