Marek Magierowski: “Russia is Losing This War Right Now”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Ambassador, as you know, obviously, there’s still hopes for diplomacy. It hasn’t got anywhere yet. But there have been meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations. We saw the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers. Nothing came out of it. But I wonder whether you were struck by an interview that President Zelenskyy of Ukraine gave earlier this week to an American network, in which he said and he seemed to put the issue of NATO off the table, in other words, saying that he had cooled down to the whole idea. He recognized that NATO wasn’t coming to the rescue. And, therefore, the way he put it was cooling down to the idea or cooling off the idea that NATO was even on the agenda for Ukraine. He talked about needing security guarantees. That seemed to be a very big statement from him at this point. How did you read it?

MAREK MAGIEROWSKI, POLISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: It is. It is, definitely. And, of course, we don’t rule out a diplomatic solution to this war. But now the ball is in Russia’s cold, definitely. It’s them who don’t want to negotiate. It’s them who don’t seem to be willing to downgrade their expectations and their requests and their demands, which are — many of them are just outlandish, to be honest. But, again, Poland is in favor of a diplomatic solution. But it’s very hard to foresee a situation in which Russia would start making serious concessions. My — in my humble view, Russia has is losing this war right now, not only in the hearts and minds of Europeans and Americans, all the societies of the so-called free world. Russia is losing this war literally. So, I believe that many of those families who have fled Ukraine, mostly to Poland, will be able to return to their homes shortly. And I don’t know whether we will find a diplomatic solution, but maybe the military solution and defeating the Russian army in Ukraine is the way out.

AMANPOUR: OK. Well, Ambassador, that is very bold talk, defeating the Russian army. That’s exactly what NATO says it doesn’t want to do, which is exactly the conundrum you all got embroiled in yourselves, as Poland and the United States, over the issue of fighter jets.

MAGIEROWSKI: Yes, we have been very adamant. The Polish — the Polish government has been very adamant on this issue. We should not engage in a direct military confrontation in Russia. That’s why what I am saying is that I believe that the Ukrainian army is capable of defeating the Russian army right now.