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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
The author is editor-in-chief of the Polish weekly Kultura Liberalna and at the moment a senior fellow on the Zentrum Liberale Moderne in Berlin
In 2012, the eyes of Europe had been on Poland and Ukraine as the 2 international locations collectively hosted the European Championship soccer event. Warsaw was even eager to current itself as Kyiv’s casual ambassador to western Europe. The psychological map of Europe was to maneuver eastward.
Polish and Ukrainian confidence in regards to the future didn’t final lengthy. In 2014, Russia attacked Ukraine, an act of aggression that lower by means of the area’s post-cold warfare optimism. Donetsk, one in all eight cities that hosted the Euro matches, is occupied by Russia. The solidarity has shifted to a warfare footing.
Poland and Ukraine have come a great distance in additional than two years: from spontaneous camaraderie to a sequence of misunderstandings. I learn this as an indication of the broader geopolitical change within the area. The explanations for the Polish-Ukrainian arguments are structural and won’t simply go away. Furthermore, Ukraine’s aspirations to affix the EU and Nato could intensify them.
Solely just lately, a pointy dispute was mentioned to have arisen in Kyiv between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish international minister Radosław Sikorski. In accordance with media experiences, which haven’t been denied, Zelenskyy demanded, amongst different issues, the supply of MiG-29 fighter jets. In flip, Sikorski demanded an answer to the issue of the exhumation of some tens of 1000’s of Poles murdered by Ukrainians in the Volhynian bloodbath throughout the second world warfare.
The following non-diplomatic brawl was just one hyperlink in a sequence of acrimonious incidents. In July, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland’s deputy prime minister and defence minister, declared that Ukraine couldn’t be admitted to the EU till Warsaw and Kyiv resolved the difficulty of Volhynia. Later, the environment grew extra heated after Sikorski, in a closed dialogue, was mentioned to have aired the potential for putting Crimea beneath a UN mandate with the prospect of a referendum on the territory’s standing within the distant future. In flip, a former head of the Ukrainian international ministry, throughout a latest assembly in Poland, was tempted to make ambiguous statements that would have been interpreted as questioning Poland’s borders.
These frictions are all of the extra shocking given the results of final 12 months’s parliamentary elections in Poland. After eight years, the nationwide populist Legislation and Justice (PiS) celebration was changed in energy by a coalition led by Donald Tusk, a former premier who had embodied Polish-Ukrainian friendship by serving to to organise the Euro 2012 occasion. The previous few weeks show that the warfare is altering us all, Poles and Ukrainians alike. So what is going on?
First, the Polish authorities is working beneath post-populist situations. There isn’t any automated return to the outdated days. Tusk’s coalition is attempting to lower the nationalistic egoism with which the PiS authorities saturated society. However his technique of shifting the citizens away from the nationwide populists is continuing slowly and cautiously. It’s like serving gentle mayonnaise after eight years of spicy mustard.
In apply, because of this the Tusk authorities just isn’t jettisoning all elements of international coverage as carried out within the PiS period. It displays a sure intransigence in the direction of international companions, together with Ukraine. That is greatest understood as a part of the method of Poland’s transition from populism to liberal democracy.
Second, in contrast with 2012, the warfare introduced an finish to the period of the “junior accomplice” in bilateral relations. To the world’s shock, Ukraine not solely stopped Vladimir Putin’s blitzkrieg, however dared to ship troops into Russian territory. It’s constructing international relations with out intermediaries. The Ukrainian military is among the most battle-tested in Europe. Within the matter of recent weapons akin to drones, it’s Poland that would study quite a bit from Ukraine.
When peace comes, Ukraine will declare a better position within the area. We’re witnessing a geopolitical shift in japanese Europe. Kyiv needs to affix Nato and the EU and to play an vital position. For Ukrainian politicians, there are areas on the horizon during which reliance on international support could give technique to competitors. On this context, they really feel empowered to handle the politics of historic reminiscence extra uncompromisingly.
Within the meantime, all too usually politicians in each international locations just lately have engaged in a type of aggressive verbal bidding — apparently to fill an mental vacuum in entrance of their residents. “The place two battle, the third advantages” is the traditional saying. Moscow has not ceased to be a menace to the area. Sadly, latest wrangles show that such geopolitical clichés, nevertheless true they might be, are shortly forgotten by some politicians.