Dec. 19 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Polish President Karol Nawrocki discussed mutual concerns during a private meeting in Warsaw on Friday.
The meeting was the first between the two European leaders since Nawrocki was inaugurated as Poland’s new president on August 6, and they discussed security issues involving most of Russia, along with economic concerns and historical issues, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Zelensky said that the meeting was the beginning of a new chapter for the relationship between the two nations and is “bad news for Russia”.
“I very much hope that this visit will open a new and even more substantial chapter in our relations – the relations between Ukraine and Poland, the relations not only of neighbors, but of two European pillars without which there will simply be no freedom in our part of Europe, because there will be no security,” Zelensky told the media later during a joint press conference.
“Russia wants discord, it wants to destroy and dismantle such a strong alliance — an alliance of two peoples of many generations of Ukraine and Poland,” Zelensky said. “We’re not going to let them do that.”
He said that Ukrainian and Polish independence would deter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe but warned that Russia would continue in Poland if Ukraine were to fall amid the nearly four-year war there that began when Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.
Nawrocki said Poland supported Ukraine during the war and could exchange MiG-29 fighters in return for Ukrainian drone technology.
The President of Poland criticized Ukraine’s desire to join the European Union and NATO, both of which Poland is a member state.
The two presidents also discussed the Volyn massacres of 1943-1944, during which members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army killed tens of thousands of Poles in Nazi-occupied territory in western Ukraine.
Retaliatory attacks have killed thousands of Ukrainians, and the historic conflict remains a source of tension between Polish and Ukrainian leaders.
The meeting between the two presidents followed Zelensky’s trip to Belgium, where he met with European Union leaders in Brussels and secured a $105.5 billion interest-free loan for Ukraine.
The loan is in lieu of allocating funds to Ukraine from frozen Russian assets, which EU leaders considered but dropped after failing to reach a consensus.
Zelensky said the loaned money would either help finance Ukraine’s defense against Russia or support the rebuilding of the nation if Russia agrees to a peace deal and ends its aggression, The Independent reported.