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Poland can help rebuild Ukraine under ‘new Marshall Plan’: PM

05.10.2022 23:00
The Polish prime minister has said that Poland and its businesses want to help rebuild Ukraine after the war “under a new Marshall Plan.”
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Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki addresses an international conference, entitled Europe  Poland  Ukraine. Rebuild Together, in Warsaw on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki addresses an international conference, entitled "Europe – Poland – Ukraine. Rebuild Together," in Warsaw on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Mateusz Morawiecki made the declaration at an international conference on the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine on Wednesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

Enitled Europe - Poland - Ukraine. Rebuild Together, the event was held in the Polish capital Warsaw. 

The Polish prime minister told the gathering: “We are witnessing a geopolitical turn, an enormous change. It isn’t only happening on the Ukrainian front, although heroic struggle is taking place there, paid for with the blood of Ukrainian soldiers.”

Morawiecki said that Vladimir Putin’s Russia was engaging in “an increasingly brutal aggression and an escalation of various threats and blackmail.”   

War, propaganda, energy

He added that “in addition to the military battlefield in Ukraine, there are other battlefields, more hidden from the public eye.”

The prime minister stressed the importance of the “propaganda battlefield,” where “Russia excels,” he said.

Morawiecki warned that if public support for Ukraine’s struggle “for freedom, democracy and the rule of law” were to fall, “it will be much more difficult to secure financial assistance and weapons” for the war-torn country.  

“Another battlefield is the energy battlefield,” he told the conference. 

He said that Russia was using energy supplies as a weapon “to destroy the economic foundations of Europe.” 

Confiscation of Russian assets

According to Morawiecki, “to win the war with Russia, we must build a new security architecture.”

He said: “Poland is not only in favour of a freeze on the Russian capital, which was built on crime, but we also want this Russian capital to be confiscated and used to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, in which Polish entrepreneurs should play a part.”

Morawiecki declared: “As part of the new security architecture, we’ll be making sure that Poland and Polish entrepreneurs are among those who will be rebuilding Ukraine under a new Marshall Plan.”

He said he had recently discussed the matter with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“This is why Ukraine adopted support measures for Polish entrepreneurs and citizens staying in Ukraine, mirroring Poland’s support package for Ukrainians, to acknowledge Poland’s role in these difficult times,” Morawiecki told the conference.  

Wednesday was day 224 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(pm/gs)

Source: PAP, gov.pl, 300polityka.pl