Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski warns U.S. against treating Ukraine war as a territorial dispute that concessions can end

Polish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski said U.S. negotiators risk misunderstanding Russia’s war against Ukraine by treating it primarily as a territorial dispute that could be resolved through Ukrainian concessions in Donbas.

Sikorski said Washington appeared focused on ending the war on whatever terms were necessary so it could resume economic cooperation with Russia. “But you can end any war by surrendering,” he said. “So the terms matter.”

He argued that American negotiators were mistaken if they believed Ukraine could surrender the remaining Ukrainian-held cities in Donbas and allow President Vladimir Putin to “save face,” bringing the conflict to a lasting end.

“There might be some kind of pause,” Sikorski said, but argued that Moscow’s broader ambitions went beyond individual territories. “The Soviet Union minus Ukraine is Russia without great-power status. To be a global superpower, Russia needs Ukraine.”

Sikorski also challenged what he called a Western myth that Russia inevitably wins its wars. He cited Russian or Soviet defeats in the Crimean War, the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, the 1920 war against Poland, Afghanistan and the Cold War.

“Things can turn out very differently,” he said.

Sikorski has repeatedly argued that any settlement must leave Ukraine sovereign and capable of defending itself, warning that an agreement that merely pauses the conflict could allow Russia to regroup rather than produce a durable peace.