When President Andrzej Duda (responding to President Volodymyr Zelensky who suggested that Poland had sided with Russia) used a comparison to a drowning man grasping at a razor’s edge and likely to pull the rescuer down, I thought the phrase was a tone too strong. But today we can see that it was unfortunately on point.

When President Andrzej Duda (responding to President Volodymyr Zelensky who suggested that Poland had sided with Russia) used a comparison to a drowning man grasping at a razor’s edge and likely to pull the rescuer down, I thought the phrase was a tone too strong. But today we can see that it was unfortunately on point.

Official Kiev has just made a radical turn in foreign policy, fully relying on Berlin, not only in its plans for the future, but also in the German game of overthrowing the government in Warsaw. This is the purpose of unleashing a grain war just before the elections, this attempt to force the Law and Justice government to ruin its own agriculture and accept the political disaster that follows. This is exactly what President Zelenski is demanding of us, and for refusing to do so he wants to drag us to international tribunals and demand compensation. He is acting in this way in a situation where he has full capacity to transport grain across Polish territory, where exports are increasing and where sea routes are also operational.

So is it about the few euros more per tonne that can be earned by dropping a load in Poland? More likely it is about the elections in Poland.

Has Kiev become so powerful that it wants to set the political scene for us? Or has it succumbed to the illusion that it belongs to the world powers? If so, it is a mistake. Indeed, it doesn’t. It really does not. This is not the reason why everyone is talking to him.

No worries - in response, we will not send invoices for tanks delivered at a critical moment and for everything we have contributed to help a neighbour fighting a barbaric invasion. Poles are different. We have principles and values, we think clearly. That is why Poland is here where it is, and why Ukraine, led by such elites, was in a condition known well before the war.

Everything we did for Ukraine, we did justly. The eternal enemy of freedom, Russian imperialism clanking its chains, has at this stage been stopped far from Poland’s borders. This is a great achievement for both nations.

So if there is anything we regret today, it is the price Ukrainians will pay for Zelensky’s current illusions.

He wants to secure the sovereignty of his homeland with Germany? Once again?

It is Germany that shares responsibility for this war, it is Germany that spoiled and emboldened Putin; it is Germany that geopolitically exposed Ukraine to Moscow by building Nord Stream 1 and 2. As the Russian tanks marched on Kiev, and Prime Minister Kaczynski, President Duda and Prime Minister Morawiecki decided to give Ukraine Polish tanks and whatever we possibly were able to offer, in Berlin they expected a quick victory for Russia. This was revealed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, there is plenty of other evidence.

Every child in Poland knows that if Tusk, politically and culturally dependent on Germany, had been in power, he would then have sent exactly the same as Berlin - some old helmets and tents. And it is this Tusk that Zelenski is now counting on. Way to go, you guys!

Germany is ready for anything in return for Russian cheap gas and the joint division of Europe with Moscow. There is no trick they find too immoral, no game too disgusting.

Why not delude President Zelenski with the vision of a rapid entry into Europe, if only he will help Germany change the government in Warsaw, because this will be followed by ‘reforms’ of the Union, i.e. Berlin taking full control? Why not. A cheap fairy tale, costing perhaps a few hryvnias. Nothing of the sort will happen, it is a grand illusion. The truth is that Ukraine will not join the European Union for many, many years. The country is not ready for it - it is very far from even the loosened standards. The EU will not accept the country into the EU without solid reforms, and there is no sign of them. Poland, too, will not be blackmailed by claims that it must give up its veto in exchange for EU enlargement to include Ukraine.

For this mirage, a delusion recognisable to anyone with a moderate understanding of politics, Zelenski is pushing away the only ally he could really rely on. A big mistake and irreparable damage. We can handle it, but it is a pity about Ukraine. It will be weaker after this ‘brilliant manoeuvre’, dependent on a cynical ‘moral superpower’, not any stronger.

But what is most saddening is the emerging Ukrainian concept of some kind of shortcut. For the umpteenth time, Kiev believes in some miraculous solution on the way to the West, some power of diplomatic talks ignoring reality.

The Ukrainian elite clearly do not understand that Poland did not achieve its current level of economic development, state power and importance thanks to its presence in the Union. This presence and ability to compete are the result of hard independent work, implementation of good models and rejection of bad ones, fight against corruption. The Union and success here are the result, not the cause.

Even when the post-communists were in power in Poland, and even when Tusk, who was contemptuous of the defence of the national interest, was in power, there were people and circles in Poland who effectively prevented the takeover of the country by oligarchic mafias. Only by following such a path, working hard independently and rejecting pathologies, would Ukraine be able to rise sufficiently to fully join Western structures.

And this is where a solid partnership with Warsaw would be the best choice. To put it yet differently: the road through Germany is a route of illusions, objectification and inertia; the road through Poland is one of self-reliance and hard, difficult work, but genuinely uplifting for Ukraine.

Yet Zelenski has chosen illusions, German beads and a tricky game with Warsaw according to the whispers from Berlin.

We can see this in Poland, and this is what we grieve over the most. So much blood, so much suffering, such a courageous struggle, which ended, after all, with great success, because the Ukrainian state survived, the nation grew stronger. And now, when the state that was defended with so much effort should be restored, there is a return to a policy that repeats old mistakes, the continuation of oligarchic pathologies, and which may ruin everything.

It is a great pity.

Tłum. K.J.