During remarks at the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki complained that Germany and France are not doing enough to support the Kiev regime. “All [the allies in NATO] want Ukraine to win but not necessarily to the same extent,” he said, reported US Naval Institute News. Germany and France “want a quick cease-fire … almost at any price.” He attributed that desire for a cease-fire to “more and more [war] fatigue” in those nations and to some extent in the United States. Paris and Berlin have not demonstrated “serious international moves” of support by opening their military depots and arsenals to supply the Ukrainians, Morawiecki said.
Morawiecki quoted Vladimir Lenin, saying, “capitalists will sell us the rope that we will hang them with. …The rope today is technology,” with reference not only to economic relations some countries still have with Russia but also China. At the same time he was quoting Lenin, he was also accusing Europe of appeasement of Moscow 1930’s style (while ignoring Poland’s own dirty role in the Czechoslovakia affair in 1938). Warsaw “will be next” if the Kremlin prevails in the war, he claimed. NATO is key to ensuring that doesn’t happen, Morawiecki said. Like Ukraine, “we have something else … the determination to defend our freedom.”
Morawiecki went on NBC News later and “warned” that the war in Ukraine “could last years” and that Russia has sufficient natural and human resources to continue “its aggression” for the long haul. “We are not calculating any precise date,” he said when asked how long the war would last. “We are simply observing what is happening on the frontline, on the battlefield, and accordingly we try to adapt to the situation and work through our diplomacy with our partners in Western Europe to support Ukraine.” Asked if he believed the war “could last years longer,” Morawiecki replied emphatically: “Yes, it could.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda is doing his part, having taken off for Vienna yesterday to browbeat the Austrians on sending weapons to Kiev. “The president will seek to persuade Austrian leaders to provide more active support to Ukraine, while respecting the legal circumstances,” Marcin Przydacz, a top foreign-policy aide to Duda told reporters, reported Polish Radio. Przydacz said that “there is a whole spectrum of measures that Austria can take as a democratic, Western European and values-based country.” He added: “We’ll be seeking to encourage our partners to be more active in this regard.”
