“I have no doubt that Ukraine will survive as an independent state,” Tusk said in an interview with the British newspaper The Sunday Times.
He added that the most important question was how many more victims the war would claim.
Tusk told The Sunday Times that he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Western support for Kyiv and the growing Russian threat to Europe.
He said Zelensky told him that Ukraine hopes the conflict will not last a decade, but is ready to fight for “another two or three years.”
Tusk warned that Russia remained intent on waging war despite being in “serious economic trouble,” compounded by new US sanctions targeting its oil sector.
Tusk also said he felt a “bitter satisfaction” that his years of warnings to Europe about Moscow’s aggression had been vindicated.
“We are talking about the end of an era of illusions in Europe,” he said.
He added that this realization came "too late to properly prepare for all threats, but not too late to survive."
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, sparking the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Sunday marks the 1,341st day of the war.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (right) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) meet in Warsaw on January 15, 2025. Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak
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Source: IAR, PAP