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Polish deputy FM says EU leaders urged Kyiv to engage in peace talks with Moscow

20.06.2022 13:30
A Polish deputy foreign minister has said that the leaders of France and Germany and two other European Union countries encouraged Ukraine to engage in peace talks with Russia when they visited Kyiv last week.
Marcin Przydacz.
Marcin Przydacz.PAP/Radek Pietruszka

Marcin Przydacz made the claim in an interview with Polish private broadcaster RMF FM on Monday.

It came after French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis last Thursday visited Kyiv for face-to-face talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Polish state news agency PAP reported. 

On Friday, the European Commission recommended that the European Union grant candidate status to Ukraine. 

Przydacz told RMF FM that the European leaders "had two pieces of information for Ukraine” when they arrived a day earlier.

“On the one hand, they confirmed the EU’s willingness to grant Ukraine candidate status, although this had been prepared earlier by many other countries,” he said.

“But unfortunately we have reports that also under discussion were issues to do with the necessity to engage in dialogue with Russia, to make some concessions,” he added.

France’s Macron told reporters that he did not mention territorial concessions during the visit. He also said that it was up to Ukraine to decide whether to hold talks with Russia. 

But Przydacz argued that the four European leaders had discussed with Zelensky “how peace talks could be held.”

'We have our own sources of information'

Przydacz said: “We have our own sources of information.” He declined to name the sources.

He added that "this was why" Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki did not travel to Kyiv last Thursday together with the four politicians.

“Poland didn’t want to affirm efforts to pressure Ukraine into premature negotiations,” Przydacz told RMF FM.

He said it was in Poland’s interest "for Russia to stop being a threat to Poland and the whole world.”

He added: "As long as Ukraine is willing to fight, it should receive assistance."

Przydacz also said in the interview that Ukraine needed political and military support, "which Poland is providing on a continuous basis.”

His remarks came as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its 117th day.

(pm/gs)

Source: PAPrmf24.pl