Ukraine must not give Russia single millimeter of its territory, says Wałęsa

Former Polish President Lech Wałęsa emphasized this in an interview with Ukrinform.

“Under no circumstances. Not a single millimeter back. Ukraine is struggling, it is suffering, but it cannot retreat; it cannot give anything to Russia. Nothing can be given away,” Wałęsa stressed.

He noted that he supports Ukraine's rapid integration into the EU.

"If I hadn't done everything to get Poland into the EU and NATO, they would have done the same thing to us that they did to Ukraine. Despite the assurances of world leaders, the agreement was broken [the Budapest Memorandum], and Russia did what it wanted. That is why I insisted so much on Poland's accession to the EU and NATO. Of course, I planned to do this together with Ukraine, but I did not have a second term," the former Polish president stressed.

In his opinion, Ukraine's rapid accession to the EU is “the only way out” of the current situation. “Everything else is bad,” he stated.

As reported by Ukrinform, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously stated that, after the war, Russia will try to prevent Ukraine's accession to the EU, which is why the peace agreement must include a specific date for EU accession.

Deputy Head of the Office of the President Ihor Zhovkva emphasized that Ukraine would not accept “reduced” membership in the European Union. However, it understands that after accession, there may be transitional periods in specific sectors of the European single market.

On February 18, trilateral negotiations among Ukraine, the US, and Russia ended in Geneva. On February 20, Zelensky announced that the next round of peace talks would take place within 10 days in Geneva.

Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.

Photo: Facebook / Lech Wałęsa