Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to travel to Kyiv. “I think he should do that,” Morawiecki told the WELT television station in Davos. “Because there is nothing better than visiting the capital of the fighting nation to see the gravity of the situation, to get a sense of the importance of everything that is happening there.” Ukraine is fighting for “our freedom, for them European idea, for the most important principles that we can only imagine.” Everyone should be aware of that.

Morawiecki also called for more military support from Western European partners. Poland has done everything to quickly help Ukraine with weapons, and others should follow this example. Germany did not want to explicitly point out Morawiecki as a problem, but there are “some countries in Western Europe” from which he expects more support. “I expect our partners in Western Europe to do the same because this is a turning point – not just in European history but in world history,” Morawiecki said. It is quite obvious that the discussions here in Davos reveal something about the consciousness of Western Europe’s political elite and business leaders: “Even if many people here think differently than they did two years ago, I believe that some of our friends from Western Europe still have to do their homework.”

He has the feeling that many EU partners would like to return to the pre-war order. But that’s not possible, said Morawiecki: “We can’t expect the Ukrainians to give up. We should help them defend their freedom. Because if Putin wins, may God prevent that, it would be the end of this world. (…) We must not believe that there can be a return to ‘business as usual’. But I still have a feeling that some people in Western Europe are hoping for exactly that return.”