Poland's Tusk to Visit Ukraine on Friday

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he would visit Ukraine on Friday, Sept. 18, and called for stronger sanctions on Russia.Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will also be in Ukraine, Tusk said during a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker in Warsaw on Thursday.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.“Tomorrow, I will also meet with Prime Minister Fico in Ukraine, where a summit will be held,” Tusk said, as reported by Ukrainian state media Ukrinform.“Today and two days ago [Russia] attacked, among other targets, gas stations. Tonight, I will be traveling through Ukraine, and after I return, I will report to you on what Ukraine’s energy infrastructure looks like,” he added.The planned visit comes after multiple Russian strikes along the Ukrainian-Polish border, including on trains carrying foreign diplomats and officials after their attendance at Kyiv’s Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference.Tusk had warned of potential Russian strikes on the Polish border days earlier, with Moscow threatening that “Warsaw will cease to exist within two or three days” should a war break out with Poland.“The threat of provocations by Russia is real and could materialize at any moment,” Tusk said on Thursday.He also commented on Washington’s recent energy truce proposal in Ukraine, calling the Russian attacks a response to the US proposal.“The response came very quickly and, unfortunately, very close to the Polish border,” Tusk added. Other Topics of Interest ‘Very Massive Explosion’: Russian Drone Falls 4 km From Poland Warsaw put its air defenses on alert as sirens sounded in eastern Poland during Moscow’s latest assault on western Ukraine. The Polish prime minister also cast doubt on the effectiveness of the US proposal, which Ukraine said it supports and Russia called a “very good idea,” with neither side confirming agreement, as opposed to what US President Donald Trump claimed in his announcement.“And it was probably more an attempt to persuade President Zelensky to have Ukraine stop attacking Russian oil refineries,” Tusk spoke of Trump’s proposal.“So, unfortunately – and I say this with pain – I fear that by winter we will witness increasingly severe Russian attacks on energy infrastructure,” he added.Reactions on EU’s new sanctionsTusk also commented on the EU’s upcoming sanctions package, which has faced delays due to pressure from some countries, including France and Slovakia, to delist certain Russian oligarchs.Tusk said he’s “optimistic” about Slovakia’s position, which is part of the Visegrád Group, a political and cultural alliance of four Central European nations.“After my meeting with the Visegrád Group prime ministers in Bratislava a few days ago, I am optimistic about the position of the entire Visegrád Group on sanctions,” he said.Tusk said he’s “curious” about the rationale behind France’s position.“As for the French position, I will try to find out from President Macron whether protecting the interests of one individual is genuinely France’s priority. I myself am interested in hearing his answer to this question,” he added. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.