Poland Works Towards Strengthening Sanctions against Russia

Poland is constantly working towards strengthening the EU sanctions regime against Russia over its aggressive policy in Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland informs.

The Ministry’s statement says that Russia’s confrontational policy, traditionally backed by demonstrative military movements and provocative military exercises, as well as large-scale and aggressive disinformation policy, “is particularly evident in the combat zone where it is easy to shift the blame for escalation to the other party to the conflict.”

It is noted that the number of ceasefire violations has tripled since mid-March compared to January and February, according to the OSCE SMM reports. “There is an increasing number of very intense, provocative shelling by Russian-backed illegal armed groups. This leads to serious incidents, as a result of which Ukrainian soldiers die,” reads the statement by the Foreign Ministry of Poland.

The diplomats state that they maintain close contacts with their Ukrainian counterparts, and that at least several more meetings at the level of ministers and deputy ministers, as well as in multilateral formats such as the Lublin Triangle, are to take place this year.

As a reminder, Poland is preparing to chair the OSCE, which is actively involved in the process of resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Poland intends to “efficiently use the chairmanship to try to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine and support the conflict-affected people in Donbas.”

Natalia Tolub