Since the beginning of the war, Europe has provided significant aid to Ukraine, which Putin did not count on, and has the ability to increase it and compensate for the possible end of U.S. support for Kyiv, but this requires more unity and cohesion, in particular, a solution to the Hungarian issue, said Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landbergis.

"[Russian president] Putin expected us to be completely divided and ineffective. I think we are far less degenerate than he thinks. I think we surprised him," Sikorski said at the 20th annual YES meeting in Kyiv on September 13-14, organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

He recalled that Ukraine has received about EUR 120 billion from the EU, mainly in the form of financial assistance, and has fully recognized and supported the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine as part of the established order.

The minister added that Poland has waged about six wars with Russia since the 18th century, and has not received anything like this kind of support in any of them.

Sikorski acknowledged that the situation in Ukraine is difficult now – both on the battlefield, and with the energy infrastructure before winter, and with possible risks of reduction or termination of support from the United States.

"And in my view, the real moment of truth for Europe will come if the U.S. cuts off its support," the Polish Foreign Minister believes.

In his opinion, even in such a situation, not everything will be lost, and it will mainly be a matter of money, since it is unlikely that the U.S. will refuse to sell the necessary weapons.

"So, EUR 120 billion, given that we are a EUR 15 trillion economy, is less than 1% of our annual GDP over two and a half years. So, less than half a percent of Europe's GDP per annum. We've spent far more, six, seven times more on assistance to our people for dealing with energy costs. So, if we were to double it, we can afford it. If we decided that it's really a threat to Europe, we have the money and the potential production capacity to give Ukraine the means," Sikorski said.

At the same time, he pointed out that Europe's problem is that the sense of danger is unevenly distributed across the continent. "If you're Polish, if you live in the Baltic States, in Scandinavia, in Romania, you feel it viscerally. You feel physically threatened. If you're further afield, less so," the Polish minister explained.

According to him, the second problem is that the EU is a confederation, without a real center that can make decisions on security issues, and decision-making is a difficult task.

Sikorski noted that there is at least one member state - Hungary, which is not in full solidarity with the others, and is effectively blocking compensation payments for equipment supplied to Ukraine from the European Peace Facility, which is a defense budget.

"Viktor Orbán's Hungary has become a revisionist country that is unhappy with its borders and that puts itself in between the West and Russia in its rhetoric and in its actions, which unfortunately is having an effect," Sikorski noted, calling it a challenge for the EU.