KYIV: Poland's new foreign minister urged the West to rally around Ukraine, choosing the war-torn country for his first visit abroad in a sign of support as other allies waver on aid.
Ukraine in turn expressed hope for a quick resolution to a blockade from Polish truckers and said the visit marked a "new page" in the two countries' relations that became strained under the previous administration.
Air alarms sounded during the meeting, warning of a potential new attack from Russia, which has intensified air attacks in the past weeks.
"If the West mobilises, I have no doubt who will win, but it must finally start mobilising," Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in a press conference wrapping up his trip.
He said Western economies were "twenty times wealthier than Russia" but that Moscow "has switched its economy to a war mode."
His visit comes as fatigue builds among Kyiv's allies nearly two years into the war despite Ukrainian officials' efforts.
In the US, Senate leaders said that Washington would not be able to approve new aid for Ukraine before the year's end.
Hungary blocked a 50-billion-euro European Union aid package for Ukraine, though Ukraine did win a symbolic victory when the bloc opened formal membership negotiations with Ukraine -- but any actual accession is years away.
Sikorski's visit aimed to reassure Kyiv and to resolve a month-long blockade at the Ukraine border by Polish hauliers was top of the agenda.
When the war began in February 2022, the EU waived restrictions for Ukrainian road carriers to enter the bloc to ease the cargo traffic in and out the war-torn country.
But Polish truckers say the move undercut their earnings and have been blocking the border with Ukraine -- which heavily relies on the route for its exports and imports.
Earlier the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba addressed the issue.
"The first thing to do is to unblock the border, because the situation in which our friendly relations find themselves -- in the shadow of the blocked border -- is unacceptable and harmful," Kuleba told his Polish counterpart.
"We hope that this problem will be solved by Christmas, before the end of this year," Polish Deputy Infrastructure Minister Pawel Gancarz said at a briefing later on, speaking alongside Sikorski in Kyiv. The blockade has been a thorn in the relations between Warsaw and Kyiv. — AFP
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