Polish Media Debunks Zelensky Narrative That Ukraine is Fighting for West's Freedom
© AP Photo / Czarek Sokolowski
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Ukraine’s president and his ministers have spent nearly two years parroting the line that Kiev is fighting for the West’s freedom, and that if Russia is allowed to win, it will attack other European countries. But some Poles no longer buy these claims.
Kiev’s “cunning propaganda” suggesting that a Russian victory in Ukraine will inevitably be followed up with attacks on NATO countries are little more than a form of “demagoguery” and “blackmail” completely detached from reality. That’s according to an editorial published in Polish politics journal Mysl Polska.
“An Estonian military officer has formulated the following thesis: that ‘there are only two options: either Ukraine will win, or there will be World War III’. This ridiculous proposition is probably shared by a large part of Ukraine’s supporters in our country,” the alternative conservative media outlet wrote, pointing to efforts by some actors to convince the public “that a Ukrainian defeat will mean we will definitely be attacked by Russia.”
But the latter claim is little more than a “cunning propaganda move by Kiev aimed at maintaining Western policy of unconditional military and financial support,” with these kind of “demagogic statements…often used by Ukrainian politicians as blackmail (for example, during the Polish truckers’ protests). This trick is also used by the failing administration of Joe Biden, which frightens the countries of NATO’s eastern flank with the prospect of an attack by Russia,” the journal emphasized.
The reality is the exact opposition, and “there is no country in Europe that should be more interested in ending the war than Poland, which will be the first to face the consequences if the military situation escalates. Poland should be among the first countries to demand an end to this war, just like the Hungarians are doing. However, no political force in our country will dare to formulate such a demand... Why? Because the dogma of ‘fighting to the end’ continues to applies. The fact that it means ‘to the last Ukrainian’ is something no one in Poland cares about.”
The political journal lamented that “no one in Poland is talking about the fundamental change in the West’s policy toward Russia towards dialogue and the creation of a security system in which all parties (Russia and the West) will feel safe. To achieve this, we will need to end NATO’s march to the east, clearly declare that Ukraine will be a neutral country, end the policy of endless sanctions and revive all institutions that could be a platform for dialogue between Russia and the Europe (e.g. The OSCE). Someone might say, but isn’t that impossible? If so, they will be admitting that the Estonian military officer quoted above is right – that the alternative is World War III,” Mysl Polska summarized.
6 November 2023, 13:56 GMT
Kiev leaders and their supporters in the West have said repeatedly over the past 20+ monhts that the proxy war against Russia is in Ukraine is actually a “fight for the West’s freedom,” with now ex-defense minister Oleksii Reznikov suggesting earlier this year that Kiev was “eliminating” the “threat” posed by Russia to the Western bloc. “We are carrying out NATO’s mission today. They aren’t shedding their blood. We’re shedding ours. That’s why they’re required to supply us with weapons,” he said, adding that Kiev was “defending the entire civilized world, the entire West” from the Russians.
Russian officials have indicated repeatedly over the past year and a half that there would be no proxy war in Ukraine today if Kiev took steps to end the Donbass crisis, and if the US and its allies refrained from crossing Russia’s red lines by trying to pull Ukraine into NATO.
