Poland demands shared lead in Ukraine war talks

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has criticized the leading role played by Germany, France and Britain in talks on ending the Ukraine war and insisted that Poland also be seated at the negotiating table.

"Between the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea, 120 million people live in the EU; together with Scandinavia, that figure rises to 150 million people who are under a much more direct threat from Russia's aggression than Germany," Sikorski said in comments to be published in Sunday's edition of Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper seen in advance by dpa.

"We are neighbours of both Russia and Ukraine; you in Germany are not," he underscored.

Poland is at the forefront, Sikorski said, pointing to the arms shipments to Ukraine that constantly pass through the country. Poland bears the risks associated with this and therefore expects a role in the talks, he added.

Sikorski proposed "following the path set out in the EU treaties, such as through the president of the European Council." Alternatively, he told the paper, work must be done to establish a "coalition of the willing" to represent the continent in negotiations.

The European Union appears divided on this issue. At the EU summit that ended on Friday, European Council President António Costa was rebuffed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron for instructing his team to open its own communication channels with Moscow - separately from the national leaders' initiative.

With this, Costa appeared to be positioning himself to represent the EU in any eventual talks.

The German and French leaders, together with Britain - which is no longer a member of the EU - wish to retain the lead in the peace efforts.

Merz invited leaders to E5 format meeting

Merz has invited the leaders of France, Britain, Italy and Poland to what has been dubbed the E5 meeting in Berlin next week. The meeting is intended to follow up on this week's G7 and EU summits.

Around a week and a half ago, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke out against his country's exclusion from the Ukraine talks in the E3 format with Germany, France and the UK.

Merz, Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously met in London.