>According to media reports, there was a quarrel during a meeting between Radosław Sikorski and Volodymyr Zelensky. The Polish delegation was said to be puzzled by the behaviour of the Ukrainian president.
>Poland’s foreign minister met with the Ukrainian leader in Kyiv on Friday. The meeting was also attended by the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Gabrielius Landsbergis. As reported by Onet, during the talks Volodymyr Zelensky was said to have been dissatisfied with what he claimed was Poland’s weak support in the EU accession negotiations. Members of the Polish delegation were said to be “surprised, to say the least, by the style in which Zelensky tried to treat the head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
>”The tone of the conversation was set from the outset by President Zelensky, who, in a litany of grievances, accused Warsaw of, among other things, not supporting Ukraine in its EU accession talks. Ukraine, we should add, wants to finish them by next year. Radosław Sikorski said that these talks have taken Poland 10 years and the deadline proposed by Kyiv is unrealistic,” writes Onet.
>**”It is possible to speak of a dispute”**
>The longer the discussion went on, the greater Zelensky’s resentment became. The Ukrainian president was said to have criticised Poland for, in his view, too little of the equipment transferred and for the fact that Polish missile defences do not shoot down Russian missiles and drones over Ukrainian skies.
>Sikorski explained that Poland does not intend to shoot down Russian missiles without arrangements with NATO. As for the amount of equipment to be handed over, the foreign minister indicated that Warsaw was ready to hand over the remaining MIG jets, but only if NATO filled the gap created with Western aircraft.
>”A point of contention during the talks was also the issue of Volyn. The Ukrainian president said that Poland was only dealing with it because of domestic politics and should not return to the issue. Sikorski countered that it was up to Ukraine to treat the exhumations and burials as a Christian gesture, but this did not convince Volodymyr Zelensky. According to accounts obtained by Onet from participants in the conversation, the atmosphere at one point was so bad that one could even speak of a scandal. Significantly, the Lithuanian delegation did not try to support the Polish minister,” reads the portal.
> The longer the discussion went on, the greater Zelensky’s resentment became. The Ukrainian president was said to have criticised Poland for, in his view, too little of the equipment transferred and for the fact that Polish missile defences do not shoot down Russian missiles and drones over Ukrainian skies.
I hope this is just Zelensky being a clever politician and just playing pretend to increase public pressure in the West for more support to Ukraine.
Because it’s completely misguided if he genuinely believes Ukraine is on the same team than NATO/EU.
Ukraine is at best a proxy for us to weaken Russia without endangering our troops. That’s it. All the talks of Ukraine being on the same team is just fucking PR, if Ukraine was really on the same team we would have defended Ukraine the same way we would defend an EU/NATO member, with our own troops.
We give Ukraine help because it is convenient for us, not because it is vital. Politicians will tell people that Ukraine’s fate is extremely important, but actions speak louder than words. Even Poland that gave **so much** to Ukraine ultimately gave military aid knowing that the EU was going to reimburse that aid so that they can replace those old soviet-stockpiles for newer & better options. The second Poland understood that their own interests would be at stake, the aid given to Ukraine was suddenly being reconsidered, this is evidence that we’re not on the same team here, we just share a common goal but that is it.
For Ukraine, this is a war of survival. For us it isn’t.
Ukraine still behaves as if everyone owes it something. Even as its relations with it’s “partners” are strained, and any normal country would seek to improve and mend them instead of doubling down on crude diplomacy, demands, and emotional blackmail.
Whatever works. So far Zelensky proved himself much more capable than originally expected. He is doing a number of strange moves, but so far he has been very effective. So I cut him a lot of slack here.
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Translation:
>According to media reports, there was a quarrel during a meeting between Radosław Sikorski and Volodymyr Zelensky. The Polish delegation was said to be puzzled by the behaviour of the Ukrainian president.
>Poland’s foreign minister met with the Ukrainian leader in Kyiv on Friday. The meeting was also attended by the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Gabrielius Landsbergis. As reported by Onet, during the talks Volodymyr Zelensky was said to have been dissatisfied with what he claimed was Poland’s weak support in the EU accession negotiations. Members of the Polish delegation were said to be “surprised, to say the least, by the style in which Zelensky tried to treat the head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
>”The tone of the conversation was set from the outset by President Zelensky, who, in a litany of grievances, accused Warsaw of, among other things, not supporting Ukraine in its EU accession talks. Ukraine, we should add, wants to finish them by next year. Radosław Sikorski said that these talks have taken Poland 10 years and the deadline proposed by Kyiv is unrealistic,” writes Onet.
>**”It is possible to speak of a dispute”**
>The longer the discussion went on, the greater Zelensky’s resentment became. The Ukrainian president was said to have criticised Poland for, in his view, too little of the equipment transferred and for the fact that Polish missile defences do not shoot down Russian missiles and drones over Ukrainian skies.
>Sikorski explained that Poland does not intend to shoot down Russian missiles without arrangements with NATO. As for the amount of equipment to be handed over, the foreign minister indicated that Warsaw was ready to hand over the remaining MIG jets, but only if NATO filled the gap created with Western aircraft.
>”A point of contention during the talks was also the issue of Volyn. The Ukrainian president said that Poland was only dealing with it because of domestic politics and should not return to the issue. Sikorski countered that it was up to Ukraine to treat the exhumations and burials as a Christian gesture, but this did not convince Volodymyr Zelensky. According to accounts obtained by Onet from participants in the conversation, the atmosphere at one point was so bad that one could even speak of a scandal. Significantly, the Lithuanian delegation did not try to support the Polish minister,” reads the portal.
> The longer the discussion went on, the greater Zelensky’s resentment became. The Ukrainian president was said to have criticised Poland for, in his view, too little of the equipment transferred and for the fact that Polish missile defences do not shoot down Russian missiles and drones over Ukrainian skies.
I hope this is just Zelensky being a clever politician and just playing pretend to increase public pressure in the West for more support to Ukraine.
Because it’s completely misguided if he genuinely believes Ukraine is on the same team than NATO/EU.
Ukraine is at best a proxy for us to weaken Russia without endangering our troops. That’s it. All the talks of Ukraine being on the same team is just fucking PR, if Ukraine was really on the same team we would have defended Ukraine the same way we would defend an EU/NATO member, with our own troops.
We give Ukraine help because it is convenient for us, not because it is vital. Politicians will tell people that Ukraine’s fate is extremely important, but actions speak louder than words. Even Poland that gave **so much** to Ukraine ultimately gave military aid knowing that the EU was going to reimburse that aid so that they can replace those old soviet-stockpiles for newer & better options. The second Poland understood that their own interests would be at stake, the aid given to Ukraine was suddenly being reconsidered, this is evidence that we’re not on the same team here, we just share a common goal but that is it.
For Ukraine, this is a war of survival. For us it isn’t.
Ukraine still behaves as if everyone owes it something. Even as its relations with it’s “partners” are strained, and any normal country would seek to improve and mend them instead of doubling down on crude diplomacy, demands, and emotional blackmail.
Whatever works. So far Zelensky proved himself much more capable than originally expected. He is doing a number of strange moves, but so far he has been very effective. So I cut him a lot of slack here.