It seems that the meetings in Davos and Ramstein are slowly moving the issue of the ongoing war in Ukraine a little forward. Former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, presented a thesis at the Davos forum, which clearly shows that Ukraine's neutrality is outdated and its place is in NATO. Kissinger said that Allies should give Ukraine a guarantee of membership in the Pact.
Matters of world geopolitics are accelerating, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz is not keeping up with them. A meeting of 50 countries was held at the American base in Ramstein, Germany. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made a rather strong statement there, saying that this was a "key moment" in talks on military support for Ukraine. After the speech of the German Chancellor in the Bundestag and President Biden, it became clear that the Abramses and Leopards were given a green light for Ukraine.
Tank Leopard 2 A6 (Source: mojehobby.pl)
However, it is difficult to understand the delay of German decisions regarding the supply of heavy equipment to Ukraine. Most of the German media have trouble understanding their chancellor's decision. But as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in his speech: "Ukrainians are looking at us, Putin is looking at us, and history is looking at us."
The Germans are trying at all costs to introduce into the whole narrative an illusion of ever-increasing aid, which they allocate to Ukraine. However, if you look closely at the numbers and facts, they are mainly declarative, and if you ask specifically what heavy equipment was transferred to Ukraine, the answer is rather unclear. At the same time, a demonstration was held in Berlin under the slogan "Free the Leopards". The Germans themselves decided to protest against their government's inaction regarding their transfer.
So there is a geopolitical game in which Germany definitely loses. The image of a moral state that is ready to take responsibility for the fate of Europe may fall apart like a sandcastle. It is worth realizing that German industry and the army of Russified officials are longing for a quick end to the conflict and pressing the "résumé" button. Cheap oil and gas from Russia and a great geopolitical project from Lisbon to Vladivostok have not yet left the minds of the German elites. Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel have been promoting this state of affairs for decades.
Leopard 2 A7 tank, NATO Days 2022 (Source: Wikipedia)
Unity won today, but it is time for change and even the weather is not favorable to Putin in his energy blackmail. Gas supplies are fine. The war in Ukraine clearly makes us draw conclusions from the vision of the Polish state after 1989. Negotiations with Russia, in which Polish interests were not important. Byzantine oil and gas prices we overpaid for. Disbanding military units. Time to ask questions.
Finally, as a representative of the Polish emigration, I would like to remind the Polish elites on the Vistula River: "Statements by Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Republicans from the radical House Freedom Caucus about reducing aid to Ukraine should raise serious concern in Kiev and other capitals of NATO's eastern flank countries." Time to build a Polish lobby in the US.
This article was originally published in «Tygodnik Solidarność».
Translation from Polish by Andrew Woźniewicz.
