Polish foreign minister warns of economic trade-offs amid Russia’s war in Ukraine

ISTANBUL

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Wednesday warned of economic trade-offs amid Russia's war in Ukraine, stressing that it forces countries to decide between spending on "guns or butter."

“There’s always a trade-off between guns and butter. This is what the Russian Federation has imposed on us,” Sikorski said, speaking to TVP World in an exclusive interview.

He also noted that the war has compelled countries and institutions to prioritize defense spending at the expense of climate action.

Sikorski said the best way to ensure Russia’s defeat in Ukraine is to continue supplying Kyiv with weapons for self-defense until Russia’s economy collapses under the strain of the war.

He said that “either Putin or his successor” must come to understand not only that the war was a mistake, but also that continuing it is no longer sustainable.

“It's very difficult for a leader who started an aggressive, illegal war to admit the mistake, to change the decision and to survive in power,” Sikorski said, adding: “So it is permissible to theorize that for the president of Russia, a bad war is preferable in terms of holding on to power than a bad peace.”

He also noted that the "democratic backsliding" under Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s leadership and under the previous conservative Law and Justice (PiS)-led government in Poland made the EU accession of Moldova and Ukraine "harder."

"For future members the criteria of (EU) membership will be even higher," he added.

Sikorski also addressed Hungary’s opposition to Ukraine’s EU membership, saying: “The bigger any organization is, the harder it is to run it by consensus, by unanimity. But unanimity is not the only form of democracy.”