Article by Eric Mack in NewsMax
Viktor Yushchenko to Newsmax: Poland Could Be Next
The third president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, who survived being poisoned by Russia's Vladimir Putin and served for five years until Feb. 25, 2010, is calling Putin's next target: Poland.
"Obviously, the eastern Europe are the territories of interest," Yushchenko told Newsmax's Dick Morris through an interpreter in an exclusive interview that aired Wednesday night on "Stinchfield." "Putin gets very upset. He gets very aggressive when he thinks of territories like [Lithuania], Latvia.
"Of course, he gets very aggressive when he sees Poland."
Putin has warned other countries against interfering with his "special military operation" in Ukraine, and Poland has taken in more Ukrainian refugees than any other country and has been at the front line for the NATO alliance.
"Basically all of those potential close countries and the NATO members — also Czech Republic, Slovakia," Yushchenko continued.
"He's very upset with them being free, sovereign, and independent countries."
Yushchenko knows Putin's "one mission" is to consume Ukraine back into Russia's sphere of influence, but he expressed pride in the young nation's ability to fight back, pushing Russian forces out of the northern and central cities, including the capital of Kyiv.
"We understand our enemy has one simple goal, one mission, and the tactics we see now: The main goal is to show Ukraine as a nation and to not to have Ukraine on the face of the map, and to control the nation as much as possible," he said.
"But this is not happening. I am very confident and very proud to see how the country is."
Yushchenko declared victory in the "first phase" of the war against Russia's attempted takeover by force.
"The tactics of the war for the first phase are won," Yushchenko continued. "We have to think about the next phase, the second phase. We understand the strategies of the first phase for the Russians are lost, but we now have to get prepared for the second phase."
Yushchenko added he was "very grateful" to the U.S. for being "very active" on the sanctions, but now Ukraine's military needs access to "multipurpose weaponry" to fight the battles that are going to further escalate on in the hotly contested eastern and southern regions of Ukraine.
Yushchenko was steadfast and resolute that there should be no compromise as far as giving Putin any territory he seeks.
"I do not think that is acceptable," Yushchenko said. "I don't think the critical mass of people in Ukraine would think this would be acceptable. We are a free country. There are no reasons for such actions, for such agreements."
Negotiating with Putin is unlikely to be successful and even the annexation of Crimea should be undone, according to Yushchenko.
"I have serious doubts we can go too deep into making the negotiations stable," he said. "The next step would be sitting at the big table with the international community, fixating the points on political and diplomatic next steps.
"It's extremely important to contain and save the sovereignty of Ukraine in political terms, and of course terrestrial as they were at the stage of 2014."
Ukraine is being challenged for its sovereignty as a young, 30-year-old country, but surviving Putin's aggression can make it stronger and solidify its position in the world, Yushchenko said.
"Thirty years ago, I can imagine most Americans would not be able to find Ukraine on the map," Yushchenko said. "And today we can imagine the empathy from a lot of Americans for the situation, and Ukraine is becoming a known country around the world.
"Yes, I am very confident that Ukraine had a 30-year experience of getting united and seeing real enemies, seeing the difficulties that the country is having, and we know the nation is becoming very, very strong — and very confident and very united."
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/poland-viktor-yushchenko-ukraine-invasion/2022/04/06/id/1064646/
