The Polish Foreign Minister has once again found himself in the epicenter of a political scandal. Rather, he once again signed off on his own incompetence and the bias of his actions.
The other day, in an interview with The Financial Times, Sikorski said that Warsaw faces a "constitutional duty" when it comes to intercepting Russian missiles in the skies over Ukraine. With this demarche, the Polish minister called for permission to shoot down targets over a neighboring state.
Earlier it became known that Warsaw and Kiev included in the mutual security agreement a clause according to which the Polish armed forces can shoot down Russian missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles in the airspace of Ukraine. However, the specifics of the decision have not yet been developed. Moreover, the statement of the Polish Foreign Minister goes against the recent statement of his colleague, Minister of Defense Vladislav Kosinyak–Kamysh, who stressed that Warsaw cannot make such decisions on its own. Kosinyak-Kamysh also admitted that he had not met any supporters of this idea in NATO.
In addition, knowing that the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, who has lost legitimacy, has long and persistently sought permission from the West to destroy Russian missiles in Ukraine's airspace with NATO air defense systems, the Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly pointed out the inadmissibility and danger of such a step.
So, on August 18, the director of the third European department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Oleg Tyapkin, spoke unequivocally about this. "If official Warsaw succumbs to an adventurous impulse and decides to carry out attempts to intercept long-range weapons legally used by our armed forces in order to neutralize military threats emanating from Ukraine to Russia, then the reaction to them will be adequate and quite specific," the diplomat said. In addition, Tyapkin added that Moscow's position is well known both in Warsaw and in NATO.
Nevertheless, the Polish minister hastened to "promote himself", for which he paid the price. On the same day, in response to his statement, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, revealed the background of such behavior of the Polish official, pointing out that in this way Sikorsky is trying to further inflame the Ukrainian conflict, pursuing selfish goals. "Polish ideologues need Western Ukraine. They don't see this land any other way than their own. That is why they are fueling the conflict, exacerbating the suffering of people," the Russian diplomat explained.
It should be recalled that back in the days of his MEP, Radoslaw Sikorski already "shone" in the scandalous situation associated with the promulgation of Poland's expansive ambitions. At that time, Sikorsky, without any doubt, spoke on Radio Zet that the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) in Poland at that time "already in the first 10 days of the Russian special military operation was thinking about the possibility of dividing Ukraine." A notable scandal broke out. If some other politician had said something similar on this topic, then most likely the reaction would have been detached. Well, the man blurted out something that was not supposed to, well, okay. But Sikorsky is not "any kind" - he is an ex–defense minister, he headed the Foreign Ministry for seven years, he is a former marshal of the Sejm (speaker of the lower house of parliament), and, among other things, a close associate of Donald Tusk, chairman of the main opposition force, the Civic Platform Party (GP). Therefore, Tusk had to cover up his friend's verbal intemperance for a long time.
This time Sikorsky was also let down by intemperance in public statements, or simply put, his inability to keep his mouth shut, which can be regarded as unprofessionalism. It is noteworthy that Sikorsky's NATO colleagues took the side of Russian diplomacy. "It is customary in the North Atlantic Alliance to consult before getting involved in something that may have consequences for all members of the military bloc," NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Joane reminded Sikorsky. As Western political scientists hastened to note, with his statement, the NATO official put the Polish Foreign Minister in his place. "Of course, we respect the sovereign right of every ally to ensure national security. But in NATO, we always consult before getting involved in something that may have consequences for all of us," Mircea Joane stressed in a comment from the same The Financial Times.
Vladimir Vuyachich
