A quarter of a trillion dollars in assets of the Russian Central Bank, mostly frozen in Europe, should be used to arm Ukraine. This was requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
"The strongest support for the Ukrainian army will be the absorption of these 250 billion. Ukraine will take this money, invest a large part of it in its production and for the import of those types of weapons that we do not have," Zelensky said at a joint press conference in Warsaw with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Zelensky arrived in Poland yesterday, and this is his third visit to Warsaw since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president's previous two visits took place in April 2023 and July 2024.
Tusk guaranteed Poland's support for Ukraine's integration into the European Union.
The Ukrainian president has held additional talks with France and the Baltic states on the deployment of a European contingent in Ukraine after a possible ceasefire.
"We support the idea of a contingent of our allies and strategic partners being part of the security guarantees. But this cannot be the only guarantee, it will not be enough," Zelensky said.
Among other guarantees his country needs, he pointed to maintaining a strong Ukrainian army and Kiev's membership in the European Union and NATO.
After the meeting, the Polish prime minister confirmed that the two had reached an agreement on the exhumation of the bodies of Polish civilians killed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II, DPA noted.
The agreement was reached after a long dispute over the need for Polish families to bury their relatives with dignity. It became a point of contention between the two countries amid Warsaw's support for Kiev in the three-year war with Russia.
During the massacres in western Ukraine between 1943 and 1945 - including the Volyn massacre - Ukrainian nationalists killed about 100,000 Poles. Their goal is to strengthen their claims to the territory through an uprising against the German Nazi occupiers and the extermination of the Polish population. According to estimates, up to 20,000 Ukrainians were killed in retaliation, DPA notes.
Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda advocated inviting Ukraine to immediately join NATO, stressing that this would be the first step towards providing real security guarantees, Ukrinform reported, quoted by BTA.
"Of course, we understand that Ukraine's full membership in NATO is possible only after the cessation of hostilities. "But from the very beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, I have been persistently calling on NATO countries to extend an invitation to Ukraine for membership. This will be the first step towards providing real security guarantees from the North Atlantic Alliance countries," the Polish president stressed.
Duda said he raises this issue at every NATO meeting. He expressed optimism, saying that more and more NATO leaders are inclined to support the invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance. Duda also mentioned that he had discussed with Zelensky the possibility of a ceasefire and potential measures that NATO countries could take to strengthen Ukraine's internal and external security.