A future agreement between Ukraine and Russia should include an end to Moscow’s hybrid operations against Western countries, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski told Poland's PAP news agency during a visit to the United States.
Zalewski said U.S. officials were determined to secure a ceasefire and lasting conditions for peace in Ukraine, but that Russia’s intentions remained unclear. He added that the process would require deep engagement from both sides, as well as from Europe and Poland.
After meeting U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Elbridge Colby in Washington, Zalewski said they discussed parts of a draft peace plan for Ukraine that Warsaw found unacceptable.
“In short, these are the points where there is talk about us, but without us,” he said, adding he had received confirmation that Washington shared Poland’s view and that such issues would no longer be on the table.
He cited as an example a provision on stationing European fighter jets in Poland. “This is a decision for Poland and its allies, and certainly not a subject for talks with Russia,” he said.
Zalewski said Poland wanted Ukraine to receive strong security guarantees from Western states, with U.S. participation, and a mechanism to prevent another Russian attack. He stressed that decisions on Ukraine’s path to NATO and the European Union should be made by Kyiv and Western allies, not negotiated with Moscow.
On Russian hybrid activities against Poland and Europe, he said both Washington and Warsaw saw them as part of Russia’s escalation and hybrid war, and that any agreement “must assume that Russia will stop these actions”.
Asked whether this should be written into a deal, Zalewski said deterrence by allies, including sanctions and measures targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet”, offered better security than formal wording.
He added that even minimal future cooperation with Russia would only be possible after it fulfilled its treaty obligations and ended its hybrid war against the West.
Zalewski also said he had been told the Pentagon treated as a political guideline a declaration by President Donald Trump, made in the presence of Polish President Karol Nawrocki, that the number of U.S. troops in Poland would not be reduced. He said the two sides could discuss increasing that presence and that Poland was ready to prepare infrastructure to host more American forces.
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Source: PAP