Warsaw believes Europe can step up aid to Kiev

The possible termination of the United States' assistance to Ukraine after the election of a new president in November will be a moment of truth for Europe, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said during the annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kiev. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said this during the annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kiev.

He pointed out that Europe's resources and capabilities are great enough and Western countries can increase aid to Kiev in the conditions of its reduction by America.

And in this case all will not be lost, because the amount of aid to Ukraine is only 1% of Europe's GDP," he said.

Sikorski recalled that EU countries spend many times larger sums on numerous social programmes.

It is not a problem for us to double the amount of support for Ukraine. But the problem for us is the uneven perception of security by different EU countries," Radoslaw Sikorski said.

He added that European countries have already started to increase their own defence spending, while Russia's military invasion of Ukraine has forced many European governments to reconsider their attitude towards military service, armament, and raise the level of cyber defence.

We have not turned out to be as degenerate as Putin had hoped," the Polish minister said, referring to Western support for Ukraine.

Poland itself will increase its defence spending to a record level in 2025. Warsaw will spend about 186 billion zloty (48.5 billion euros) next year to strengthen national defence. Thus, Poland's defence spending will increase to 4.7 percent of GDP in 2025.