Letter: Ukraine Mustn’t Mistreat Poland, Its Best Friend And Advocate
From Lucja Swiatkowski Cannon
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of World Politics
Washington, DC, US
Jarosław Kuisz fundamentally misrepresents the causes of current tensions in Polish-Ukrainian relations (Opinion, October 11).
First, he claims that they are caused by the aftermath of “nationalistic egoism with which the Law and Justice (PiS) government saturated society”. This is not true as in the 2023 election campaign the former populist PiS government was accused of ruining the Polish economy and putting the country’s security at risk by assisting Ukraine. The PiS government transferred virtually all the military equipment of the Polish army — 340 tanks, hundreds of armoured vehicles, missiles, artillery, anti-aircraft launchers, ammunition, guns, and MiG planes and fuel — to Ukraine in the first weeks of the war.
PHOTO: Polish and Ukrainian soldiers train at a military base in western Poland © Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty Images
It is rather the denunciation of the PiS government as working to Moscow’s agenda, as implied in a speech by Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the UN in September 2023, that soured Polish attitudes towards giving more aid to Ukraine.
Second, Kuisz says when peace comes, Ukraine will claim a greater role in the region and will “feel empowered to address the politics of historical memory more uncompromisingly” because it plans to join Nato and the EU and play an important role, thus envisaging a geopolitical shift in their favour.
Such an attitude just betrays their naïveté and post-Soviet outlook.
The reality is that Ukraine has a long way to go and it should concentrate on defending its independence and territorial integrity from Vladimir Putin, not mistreating Poland, its best friend, advocate and strategic partner.
Lucja Swiatkowski Cannon Senior Research Fellow, Institute of World Politics Washington, DC, US
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