Jo Harper
08 July 2024•Update: 09 July 2024
WARSAW
Polish Premier Donald Tusk on Monday slammed Hungarian President Victor Orban's recent visit Moscow, a visit that European Union leaders too were quick to disavow.
“No one has the right to decide about future peace and its shape without Ukraine, or on behalf of Ukraine. No-one has the right to act on behalf of Poland or the entire EU without an agreement with Ukraine and all of us when it comes to talks with Moscow,” Tusk said after a meeting in Warsaw with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president.
“History remembers politicians who told themselves and others that they were working for a just peace, but in fact they were working for capitulation. These politicians have entered the pages of shame,” said Tusk.
“A just peace, which is what Europe and Poland stand for, is a peace that respects territorial integrity, the full independence of Ukraine, and its choices, such as being a member of NATO and the EU. We will want to work together on such a peace. There is no question of capitulation. This peace will certainly not be included in secret talks in the Kremlin,” he added.
“I will personally ensure that EU decisions about Ukraine are not made without Ukraine. That’s why it is so important to prepare ... to work together with our Ukrainian friends for the future Polish Presidency of the EU (starting next January) so that Ukraine can benefit from it as much as possible. We are talking here, first of all, about a quick path to the EU,” he added.
Ukraine currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, but EU leaders said Orban’s visit was not done on the bloc’s behalf.
For his part, Zelenskyy said after meeting Polish President Andrzej Duda: “It's his (Orban’s) individual choice. It is not possible to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, only very strong alliances can act as intermediaries … Are there many such countries in the world? Only the US, China and the entire EU could play the role of such intermediaries.”
