Polish Foreign Minister Urges Steadfast Support for Ukraine

In a speech at Johns Hopkins SAIS on September 20, 2024, Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, robustly defended Ukraine’s position in its ongoing war with Russia and made an impassioned case for the United States and the NATO alliance to remain steadfast in supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence.

Sikorski’s speech at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center was part of SAIS’ annual Brzezinski Lecture Series, which honors the legacy of Zbigniew Brzezinski as a scholar, policy advisor, and statesman. Brzezinski was a longtime SAIS faculty member who also served as national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter. The Brzezinski Lecture Series brings the world’s most preeminent thinkers to SAIS to address the growing international challenges of our time.
 
During his speech, Sikorski expressed gratitude to the Biden Administration and the American people for standing up for Ukraine following the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022. “[Russian president Vladimir] Putin was counting on our fatigue and lack of resolve,” he said. “But he was wrong.”
 
Noting that Russia’s hostile military actions against Ukraine started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea, Sikorski said the United States and its NATO allies cannot afford to slack off in their resolve against Russia’s territorial ambitions, especially considering that Ukrainians themselves remain determined to fight on, despite enormous sacrifices.
 
“We can’t be sure how long this war will last or how it will end,” he stated. “We must be prepared to stay engaged for the long haul.” He described Russia under President Putin as “an existential threat” to international order: “Russia, for the foreseeable future, will remain a danger, not only for individual countries, but for the entire transatlantic alliance.”
 
Along with the United States, Poland has been among the most enthusiastic supporters of Ukraine’s war effort. Sikorski said his country, which itself has suffered multiple invasions during its own history, will remain a stalwart advocate for Ukraine because if Moscow succeeds against Kyiv, Warsaw could well be its next target. “We in Poland will do whatever it takes to not become a Russian colony,” he said. “Whatever it takes, and for as long as it takes.”
 
SAIS Dean James Steinberg provided opening remarks before the Polish foreign minister’s speech and engaged him in a question-and-answer session afterward. During this session, Dean Steinberg asked Sikorski if the people of Poland, considering the military situation in Ukraine, are ready to be drawn into Kyiv’s ongoing war with Russia.
 
Sikorski pointed out Poland’s status as a NATO member. “I don’t think Putin wants to start a war with NATO,” he said. “He can’t even win in Ukraine, let alone against NATO. Putin may be criminal, but he’s also rational. He knows he cannot win a war with NATO.”
 
Sikorski assumed his current role as Poland’s foreign affairs minister in December 2023. Previously, he served as minister of defense (2005–2007), minister of foreign affairs (2007–2014), and speaker of the Sejm—the lower house of Poland’s bicameral parliament—from 2014 to 2015. Between 2019 and 2023, he was a member of the European Parliament.
 
Sikorski spent part of his early career as a journalist, serving as a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola (1986–1989). From 2002 to 2005, he was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He is a senior fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University and the author of several books, including Dust of the Saints: A Journey to Herat in Time of War, and The Polish House: An Intimate History of Poland.