"We will never be Russian colonies again": Polish foreign minister speaks on Ukraine's Independence Day

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski marked Ukraine’s Independence Day with a defiant public statement, declaring that Poland and Ukraine “will never be Russian colonies again.”

In his statement, Sikorski said the decision taken in Warsaw and Kyiv was unequivocal: neither nation would again submit to Moscow’s imperial rule. He traced the historical substitution of “Russia” for “Muscovy” to Russia’s conquest of Ukrainian lands and its appropriation of the Kyivan Rus legacy. He also warned that generations of Russian conquest and assimilation directed at neighboring peoples mean that fear of Russia remains a rational response rather than an irrational one.

Sikorski called on Russia to settle its territorial boundaries once and for all. “Once and for all, Russians must decide where Russia ends,” he said. The remarks highlighted Poland’s solidarity with Ukraine and Warsaw’s persistent warnings that Russian expansionism poses a lasting threat to regional sovereignty in Europe and beyond.