The foreign ministers of Germany, Norway, Poland and the UK spoke at the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday. This came as investigators in Germany were chasing down suspects for a fire at a Starlink station in Poland, and as Ukraine's European allies scrambled to deal with US President Donald Trump's latest lurch into Vladimir Putin's lap. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul bemoaned the US decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel as part of a deal to supply the US — seemingly struck as Trump panics about fuel prices with the Iran war still unresolved and a month to go until midterm elections.
"I would say this is not the time to lower the sanctions regime but to strengthen this," Wadephul said, noting the new package of EU sanctions imposed on Monday. "We are keeping our course," he said, adding that Europe was asking the authorities in Washington to do the same. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband arguably found even clearer words.
"Within the bounds of diplomacy we should acknowledge that it's been a very difficult few days," Miliband said in the Polish capital that's just a few hours' drive from Ukraine's western border. Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, meanwhile, said he was counting on "our MAGA president" — a reference to Andrzej Duda of the rival PiS party whom Trump has often praised — to use his "friendship" with Trump to do two things. "Number one: to secure a permanent US base in Poland.
And, number two: to explain to him that Putin is the aggressor, and Zelenskyy is the victim of aggression, and you end the war by convincing the aggressor to limit his level of ambition, not by asking the victim to capitulate," Sikorski said. Norway's Espen Barth Eide said it was important to focus on the actions of the last four years, also welcoming Monday's latest round of Russian sanctions. "I feel that what we've done over the last years ... all of this is a very strong signal that Europe, together with Canada and — on most good days — also with the US, we are sending a very clear message to Putin," Eide said.
Facing criticism at home as well, Trump on Tuesday said that the US was still sharing intelligence with Ukraine. He also said that other countries would be buying Russian diesel as part of the deal he announced, without being deemed to breach US sanctions, rather than the US buying it itself. This contradicted or possibly corrected his earlier statements.
Wadephul also told reporters during his visit that he had spoken with his opposite number Sikorski about the investigations into a fire at a Starlink station in Poland last month. Two people with Turkish citizenship were arrested in Germany in the southwestern town of Nürtingen, not far from Stuttgart, on Monday. Based on comments from Polish officials, they are suspected of connections with organized criminality but are thought to have been working on behalf of Russia.
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