We can’t blame Slovakia and Poland for this.
A country that values its tradition and culture in the middle of the brave new Euro world will just not do.
A week after Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin fled to Minsk after leading a short-lived mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Poland has begun bolstering its defenses along its border with Belarus where the Polish government will be deploying an additional 500 counterterrorism police. Both Poland and Ukraine have voiced growing concerns over the past week that Wagner might have established bases in Belarus and Kyiv has also announced that it will be strengthening its military positions along its northern border.
Poland and Norway have joined the ever-expanding faction of NATO countries that are willing to begin training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. The countries’ willingness comes after President Joe Biden gave his approval at last week’s G7 summit in Japan for Europeans to send Western fighters to Ukraine. The policy change occurred after months of debate inside the administration.
As Russia’s relations with Poland continue to race to a new low due to the war with Ukraine and a U.S. and NATO military build-up along its borders, Moscow is considering taking drastic diplomatic measures as punishment against Warsaw for its outspoken stance against the war caused by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
On Friday, a NATO official announced that a Polish jet patrolling over the Black Sea near Romania on behalf of Frontex, the EU’s border agency, had a concerning encounter with a Russian aircraft.
Former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, told reporters on Tuesday that a ‘quiet partition’ of Ukraine among its neighbors “would be better than Ukraine in NATO or a World War.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. Army opened its first permanent garrison on NATO’s “eastern flank” at Camp Kosciuszko in Poland. NATO’s eastern border stretches from the Baltics to the Black Sea and is comprised of 8 countries, all of which are former members of the Warsaw Pact or the USSR. Now, the U.S. Army’s V Corps will have a permanent presence in the region.
Jan Emeryk Rościszewski, Poland’s Ambassador to France, made the startling declaration that Poland would declare war on Russia should Ukraine lose the war. “If Ukraine fails to defend its independence,” the ambassador told French television, “we will have no choice, we will be forced to enter the conflict.”