Politics & Geopolitics

We have become a NATO frontier that is directly threatened by war. It is us, who risk the lives of our citizens, surrounded — on the one hand — by the Kaliningrad Fortress, on the other — Belarus, and maybe even pro-Russian Ukraine in the future, if it collapses, due to it not having been helped enough.

Over the past few days, the media has been buzzing about the potential transfer of Polish MiG-29 fighter aircraft, originally of Soviet production, to Ukraine, or rather, the failure thereof. Let's take a closer look at this mess.

The Ukraine has fallen victim to Russia's great geopolitical game, which has posed an open challenge to the United States. Putin decided that Americans, who he thought were economically weak, at odds and divided, who had just fled Afghanistan in disgrace, whose attention was distracted by the confrontation with China, would not be able to effectively respond to his aggression towards the Ukraine.

We all in the West are playing a dangerous game with Russia. It doesn't matter that they are wrong on so many things, up to and including the current war (for which they cannot alone be blamed). What matters is where we are all going. We, in the West, seem to think that isolating Russia will work towards some goal that ultimately benefits us. It won't. Russia has a very long history of self-isolation, longer than any country other than China. It's even longer than that of Japan.

Putin recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics by breaking international law once again, and the European elite and its diplomacy still believe in the project of cooperation with Russia from Vladivostok to Lisbon. What will happen to Europe next? Will Germany stop feeding us pro-Russian demagogy and cynicism?

The Polish American Congress unequivocally condemns Russian recognition of rebel entities in Eastern Ukraine and the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine. We see the Russian action as an unwarranted aggression that undermines international law and principles of sovereignty and independence. This action makes a diplomatic solution more difficult.

The XXIV Winter Olympics concluded in Beijing yesterday. It is no coincidence, we argue, that, like clockwork, just after the games are finished, things are starting to happen in the world. The pace of world events suddenly accelerated significantly. Is anyone really surprised?

We talk little about it, but it is our national trait to be a humble and proud nation, while others promote their own actions, even if they are irrelevant. With some disbelief, I listen to the words that Great Britain has always helped Poland. I listen with fear to the words about the "second Afghanistan," and about the new alliance Great Britain-Poland-Ukraine, which is perhaps supposed to force France and Germany to be more active.

The recent visit of the Polish prime minister to Ukraine, the great support of the USA, England, Poland and other NATO member states, as well as leading world politicians, shows that Ukraine is strongly supported. And this gives us hope that we will not be left alone as in 1920 or 2014, or that history repeats itself.

At the moment, a danger is approaching the Polish borders and our families there on the Vistula River. So it is time for joint, coordinated action on this issue.

On November 28 – December 1, 1943 in Tehran a meeting of the leaders of the anti-Nazi coalition (the so-called Big Three): US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, was held. Key decisions were made there to end World War II, and Central and Eastern Europe was sold there for a promise to support America in the war with Japan.