I don’t quite share Dr. Jonathan Eyal’s assessment, as it falls into the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” way of thinking. Sure, Poland has been making lots of noise, but it’s also much like why Boris Johnson was doing it: making lots of noise and pointing fingers as Germany is an old election tactic of PiS. I don’t get the actual impression that they have claimed any moral high ground.
On the other hand, they have become the tripwire that West Germany used to be, the expected battleground if toxic Russian masculinity redlines. So they will be listened to more, but perennial whining about not receiving enough repatriation for WWII won’t make the German government or German voters more likely to help their economy any.
Yeah, it struck me as a very British analysis. Their style of politics is also about making brash decisions that make them look good to voters dreaming of national greatness, so of course they would mistake Visegrad grandstanding for a power shift.
Not that Poland and the other neighbouring countries aren’t doing important work for Ukraine, mind you.
Ugh. He also said some extremely contradictory and dumb stuff about the previous recent Russian conflicts. As though Crimea didn’t get snatched in his papa’s term. As though the reason diplomacy isn’t happening is because of Ukraine’s lack of motivation, not because Russia has no credibility since they keep grabbing new land every few years.
I mean, it didn’t
Oh, thanks for keeping me in check. That was 2016 and not 17 as my pre-coffee brain was telling me. I should have said something more like “as though TFG didn’t have a chance to deal with this”.
Junior is back on the Bolivian Marching Powder again.
As long as we’re talking fact checking: Russia annexed Crimea in 2014
Crimea will ‘never again be part of Ukraine’, says Croatian president
The president of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, has criticised western countries for supplying Ukraine with heavy tanks and other weapons, and said Crimea will “never again be part of Ukraine”.
Speaking to reporters in Zagreb, Milanović said he was “against sending any lethal arms” to Kyiv, arguing that supplying Ukraine with weapons only “prolongs the war”.
Western military support for Ukraine “is deeply immoral because there is no solution (to the war)“, he said, adding that the arrival of German tanks in Ukraine would only serve to drive Russia closer to China.
Referring to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, he said:
It is clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine.
Milanovic has embraced an anti-EU stance since he was originally elected in 2019 as a left-leaning liberal candidate, and has aligned his policies with those of Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and Bosnian Serb secessionist leader Milorad Dodik.
Although the presidential post is mostly ceremonial in Croatia, Milanovic is formally the supreme commander of the armed forces.
In recent months, he has openly opposed the accession of Finland and Sweden into Nato as well as the training of Ukrainian troops in Croatia as part of EU aid to the embattled country.
Poland could supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters, Kyiv suggests
Dan Sabbagh
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s most senior adviser has suggested Poland is willing to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters as Ukraine’s lobbying for the combat jets steps up only a few days after Germany and the US agreed to send over their tanks.
Andriy Yermak said Ukraine had had “positive signals” from Warsaw in a Telegram posting, although Poland’s prime minister was careful to stress his own country would only act in consultation with Nato allies.
“We coordinate all actions aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s defence forces with our Nato partners,” Mateusz Morawiecki told a press conference where he announced plans to lift his country’s defence spending to 4% of GDP when asked about the jets. Any possible transfer of fighter jets would come “in full coordination” he added.
Ukraine began its lobbying campaign for the US-made jets almost immediately after Germany and the US said they would supply Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks, but this time its effort could be successful more quickly.
The deputy US national security adviser, Jon Finer, said last week that Washington would be discussing the idea of supplying fighter jets “very carefully” with Kyiv and its allies, while other reports said there was growing support for the idea in the Pentagon.
The British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, on Monday wryly noted that:
I think what we know about all these demands is that … the initial response is no and it ends up being yes.
Every cloud…
Tankies: As progressive socialist anti-imperialists we support Russia against Western capitalist hegemony.
Russians: Let’s colonise Ukraine and give its industries and natural resources to a Christian fundamentalist tycoon who wants Putin to be tsar.
…and anything Boris says is credible because…?
