Poland and Ukraine – Solidarity that pays – News

“We need a NATO peacekeeping mission that can defend itself,” demanded Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the man who pulls the strings in the Polish government, in Kyiv.

Armed NATO soldiers in Ukraine: The mortal enemy in the neighboring country would be a huge provocation for Russian President Vladimir Putin. That would be fuel for the war fire. And that would be a particularly big risk for Poland, this NATO country that shares borders with Russia, Ukraine and the Russian vassal state of Belarus.

Unexpected sympathy for Kaczynski

Despite the risk, the government’s bold or, depending on your position, foolhardy stance has a lot of sympathy in Poland, even among those who would normally get angry at the thought of the arch-conservative Kaczynski.

Kaczynski’s call for an armed peacekeeping mission now enjoys sympathy. And last week, the proposal to relocate Polish fighter jets to Ukraine via a US base enjoyed sympathy.

That was too risky for the Americans. In Poland, however, the prevailing conviction is that Russia only understands the language of strength, that a compromise with Putin means dropping Ukraine – just as the West dropped Poland at the beginning of the Second World War. Heroism and resistance are part of national mythology in Poland with its tragic history.

Poland gains diplomatic prestige

But the Polish government’s uncompromising commitment to Ukraine isn’t just reaping domestic sympathy. Her commitment to the neighboring country also offers her a way out of the diplomatic impasse into which she has recently maneuvered herself.

The Polish head of government was just a pariah, ostracized by the European Union for monopolizing the judiciary. Now he has become one of the spokesmen in international politics.

When he travels to Kyiv with two other Eastern European leaders, he claims to represent the EU. When US President Joe Biden comes to Europe next week, he will probably also travel to Warsaw. And the EU headquarters are suddenly looking for ways to accommodate Poland in the disputes over the judiciary.

Poland’s courage, or Poland’s foolhardiness, brings tangible benefits to the government in Warsaw.

Roman Fillinger

Eastern Europe correspondent, SRF

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Roman Fillinger is Radio SRF’s Eastern Europe correspondent. From 2007-2018 he worked in various positions at “Echo der Zeit”, most recently as moderator and deputy editor-in-chief.