Radoslav Sikorski: We Will Never Again Be Russian Colonies

• 24.08.2026, 18:36

The Polish Foreign Minister issued a statement on Ukraine's Independence Day.

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski stated that Moscow’s imperial doctrine remains the main problem for both Warsaw and Kyiv.

Sikorski made this statement on the occasion of Ukraine’s Independence Day, according to the television channel “Espreso” on Monday, August 24.

“We in Poland and you in Ukraine have decided this: we will never again be Russian colonies,” emphasized the Polish foreign minister.

Radosław Sikorski also expressed the view that the very spread of the name “Russia” instead of “Muscovy” was linked to the conquest of Ukraine and the appropriation of the legacy of Kievan Rus’.

He also noted that for centuries, Russians have used conquest and assimilation as a tool to subjugate neighboring peoples, which is why fear of Russia “is not irrational.”

“This mechanism of conquest and colonial transformation into ‘Russians,’ ‘Little Russians,’ or anyone else must be stopped,” Sikorski said.

He stated that Russia must finally clearly define its borders and abandon its desire to constantly expand at the expense of its neighbors.

“Russians must decide once and for all where Russia ends,” noted Radosław Sikorski.

He concluded: both Ukraine and Poland have an interest in ensuring that “the Russians finally become a normal nation—that is, that they respect the borders recognized by their neighbors as state borders and begin to invest in their own nation.”