Ukraine is too powerful to be sold out, Polish official says

Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski of Poland said that Ukraine is too strong to be sold out by foreign powers.

“The best guarantee for Ukraine is the almost million-man army, which is manning the foxholes and heroically resisting Russian aggression,” he said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” in an interview that aired Sunday.

Talking to Zakaria, Sikorski referred to what is often described as the worst diplomatic sellout in history, the decision by Britain and France to accede to Adolf Hitler’s territorial demands on Czechoslovakia in Munich in 1938.

That deal is often referenced when people want to describe what they consider to be an act of appeasement, sometimes accompanied by a photo of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain holding up the agreement of the deal that was supposed to bring “peace in our time.” War started a year later with Germany’s invasion of Poland.

Sikorski told Zakaria he was not worried about a similar sellout of Ukraine by American negotiators or anyone else.

“It’s Ukraine that decides whether she wants to fight or not,” he said, adding: “You know what happened in Munich in ’38? Czechoslovakia was dictated to, but that was because Czechoslovakia wasn’t ready to fight alone and didn’t have allies. Ukraine is fighting and rather successfully defeated the Russians at sea, for example, and has allies. We in Europe have said that we will continue to support Ukraine come what may.”

Zakaria asked Sikorski if he was concerned about the rhetoric of President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other members of the second Trump administration.

In recent weeks, Trump has taken positions that seem very much in line with Russia’s, including labeling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator and suggesting Ukraine started the war. (Zelenskyy, who has said he will not accept a deal imposed on his country, on Sunday said he would resign if it would bring peace or a NATO membership for Ukraine.)

Sikorski said he thought the Trump team was still finding its way.

“I think every new administration always takes a bit of time to find its feet and to assess the full information from intelligence agencies and so on, and is talking to allies,” he said. Sikorski met with new Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Friday.

The Polish official also told Zakaria that Ukraine has proved to be stronger and more resilient than anyone could have predicted when the war started in February 2022.

“Ukraine, remember, has 110 brigades in the field,” he said. “They’ve destroyed most of Russia’s tanks. They produced 1.5 million drones last year. They are going to produce 4.5 million drones this year. If you’d asked me three years ago where Ukraine and Russia would be in this war in three years’ time, I don’t think either of us would have guessed that Russia would only capture 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory.”