Tusk on Zelenskyy’s route<\/p>\n
On June 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the United Kingdom not via the Polish airport in Rzesz\u00f3w, as he usually does, but through Chisinau.<\/p>\n
“President Zelenskyy is using options other than Rzesz\u00f3w, and that’s all. I am not going to tell him where and how he should fly. Rzesz\u00f3w was not closed,” the Polish prime minister said.<\/p>\n
He was responding to speculation that the Polish side may have closed the airport to force Zelenskyy to reverse the decision to grant a Ukrainian military unit the honorary title “Named after the Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.”<\/p>\n
Poland is an “indispensable link”<\/p>\n
Tusk also commented on Poland’s absence from Zelenskyy’s meeting with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.<\/p>\n
According to him, Warsaw is “an absolutely indispensable link” in negotiations regarding the future of Ukraine and the region, and therefore “will not recognize agreements in which Poland does not participate.”<\/p>\n
He also said that a meeting in a “group of five” format \u2014 including Poland and Italy \u2014 would be organized in the coming days. The prime minister noted that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is also “not enthusiastic about the existence of a format involving only the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.”<\/p>\n
At the same time, Tusk confirmed that he expects Zelenskyy to attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdansk on June 25-26.<\/p>\n
“Therefore, I am not waiting for any confirmation here. We will obviously welcome in Gdansk those who come: companies, businesses. This is in the interests of both Ukraine and Poland,” he said.<\/p>\n
Amid the controversy over the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Tusk called on Zelenskyy and Polish President Karol Nawrocki to hold direct talks, emphasizing that a conflict between the two countries would benefit only Moscow.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Polish Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski opposed the idea of stripping Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, noting that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schr\u00f6der \u2014 a man who takes money from Putin \u2014 still holds the award.<\/p>\n
The European Commission stated that the bilateral conflict between Ukraine and Poland should not affect Kyiv’s path toward European integration. The first negotiation cluster with Ukraine is planned to be opened on June 15.<\/p>\n