Poland’s long-standing warnings regarding Vladimir Putin’s Russia turned out to be justified, as the British Foreign Secretary admitted this Tuesday during her visit to Warsaw. 

Liz Truss expressed her gratefulness in the name of the British nation for all that Poland has done so far in support of Ukraine and its citizens fleeing the Russian invasion. 

“You have been at the front line of helping Ukraine, including supporting those who have fled this appalling war,” she told her Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau. 

“Poland has always been clear-eyed about Russia. You have understood Putin’s malign intent. You were right,” Truss admitted. 

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine initiated in late February, Poland has been among the most active countries calling for a strong response towards Moscow, including embargoes on energy imports and other tough sanctions. 

What’s more, it is worth emphasising that Poland has been seriously warning its European partners about the threat that Putin’s Russia represents for the last 15 years. 

The invasion of Georgia in 2008, the Smolensk catastrophe in 2010, and the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014 were just some of the most warning signs that, from the Polish perspective, should have made Western European countries think twice before deepening their strategic partnership with the Kremlin.  

Today, not many Poles are genuinely surprised by the atrocities perpetrated by the Russian troops on Ukrainian soil among others given the fact that there are still elderly people who remember how the “liberation” of Central and Eastern Europe from the German occupation looked from 1945. 

Image: Twitter @PremierRP_en

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen