The warfare has reached Poland

The accidental missile strike incident which took place on Tuesday, was just a matter of time. Given the scale of warfare so close to the Polish border and probability of a human error, the question was not if, but when it would happen. The areas near the Ukrainian border are not densely populated, so it took more than a bit of bad luck that the missile hit grain storage facilities during its working hours. The two men working there were the first Polish civilians to have become the casualties of the Russian invasion.

The Polish government convened quickly in an emergency mode to discuss the event and its implications, while holding off on any public commentary. While many detracted from their restraint, I can praise them for not saying a word too much and refraining from jumping to conclusions. Nevertheless, the official silence gave rise to a flood of fake news on social media, particularly on Twitter. The incident gave the Russian trolls an excellent opportunity to sieve misinformation; the opportunity they instantly grabbed.

Also the foreign press agencies added up to the informational chaos, quoting unverified alleged statements of intelligence officers. On top, the Ukrainian president Zelensky did not act up to the mark, by making unfounded claims the missile was shot by the Russian army. No civilised man blames Ukrainians who defend their territory against the aggressor for the death of two men, but they should not depart from the truth. The president Biden has rightly reproached Mr Zelensky over his premature assertion. Hope the Ukrainian head of state learns from his mistake and avoids next diplomatic botch-ups.

In the first hours past the incident I wondered if NATO passed the test it had been put to. With hindsight I believe senior military officers have acted considerately and held back from overreacting of what had definitely not been an attack on the territories of the alliance.

Sadly, the scenario which I envisaged a few weeks ago, i.e. that Russia will be destroying Ukrainian infrastructure to provoke a humanitarian disaster in colder months, is materialising. Even if the hell of warfare comes to an end (with Russia being defeated, no other outcome can be imagined), it will take a few years before Ukraine recovers from losses and decades before wounds in Ukrainians’ heart heal.

So whose speech Mr Sikorski delivered?

Being rather short of time over the working week, I was not aware Mr Sikorski was going to put in an appearance in Berlin. I found out about his comment-provoking speech from Charles Crawford's (former British ambassador to Poland) blog, to which W-wa Jeziorki links, on Monday late evening. I went through the post quickly and recalled Janusz Korwin-Mikke's (Polish ultra-rightist politician) words that if your enemies (for many wacky politicians almost every politician from abroad, except our beloved allies from the United States, who incidentally not only do not know where Poland lies, but also do not give a shit about our well-being) praise you, you might be in trouble. Then I put myself to bed and simply forgot about the speech. The next day the row over the content of Mr Sikorski's speech, verging on accusations of high treason, broke out. Along with politicians of ruling coalition and leftist and liberal opposition, I would (silently) stand up to Mr Sikorski's efforts to mark our presidency. Today, while sipping tea after lunch I popped by TVN24 website to learn that Mr Crawford could have authored the outstanding speech.

Bearing in mind that Mr Sikorski, despite having studied and spending over ten years in the UK, is not a native speaker of English, it surely was a wise step to hire a skillful native to have the speech polished up by a professional speechwriter. I do not believe it was Mr Crawford who wrote the speech himself. Polish foreign office, Mr Sikorski and Mr Crawford claim in unison Mr Sikorski took Mr Crawford's advice regarding content and style of the speech and it seems to be a fair account of former British ambassador's contribution.

What I find appalling anyway is the glowing praise coming from Mr Crawford. If he really contributed to the speech, he should have dissociated himself from dissecting and extolling it. Blowing one's own trumpet in such a coarse way somehow does not befit a renowned diplomat...

Putting a spoke into his wheel?

Diplomacy is one of those realms in which one has to comply with the certain patterns of behaviour, even if they seem unreasonable… That’s why I have conflicting feeling after receiving the news of Polish Prime Minister’s delivering a speech about (doubtless) virtues of balanced state budget and highlighting this as reason why Poland keeps its head above water in the times of downturn. Was it really a dig at reckless fiscal policy of UK, or just a way of emphasising our accomplishments in that field? Tusk didn’t mean (as he claims) to any other economy but more or less involuntarily pounced at failure of Great Britain with its economy declining for the third quarter in a row… Is anybody to explain me if the British media were right to outrage at Tusk’s speech? Was it a blunder to boast about soundness of one’s own economy, while standing next to the Prime Minister of the country engulfed in recession?

PS. In case of MPC (RPP) session – predictably rates are unchanged…