Poland has become a true European leader when it comes to confronting Putin, the defence editor of Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper has claimed.
In an article published on Thursday, Con Coughlin also wrote that Poles have “shamed” Germany and France when it came to taking a tough line on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“While key EU states such as Germany and France have struggled to come to terms with the enormity of the challenge Mr Putin’s unprovoked act of aggression presents for the future of European security, it has been left to the plucky Poles to become the standard-bearers of anti-Russian resistance,” Coughlin wrote.
“The Poles have shamed Germany and France, who have shown weakness in the face of Putin’s invasion,” he added.
“It says a great deal about the impotence of the European Union’s response to the Ukraine crisis that Poland should have emerged as the bloc’s most effective cheerleader in confronting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin,” Con Coughlin wrote on Thursday.
According to Coughlin, Brussels used to demonise Poland and show it as a country violating the EU’s democratic agenda. “Today, with Poland taking the lead role in condemning Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the EU’s attempts to humiliate the Poles appear ill-judged, to say the least,” he added.
Coughlin said that, in the current situation, “not only has Poland become the lynchpin of Western efforts to provide Ukraine with vital military support, it has been the uncomplaining recipient of millions of Ukrainian refugees.”
The columnist wrote that Poland was one of the first countries to have offered fighter aircraft to Ukraine, a plan that was not implemented because of the US Administration’s unwillingness to upset the Kremlin. “And now they (the Poles – PAP) are being made to pay for their uncompromising attitude after Russia announced that it was cutting off gas supplies to Poland…”
Coughlin praised Poland’s staunch support for the Ukrainian cause, adding that it could be more surprising because of the difficult recent history between the two countries.
“It certainly stands in stark contrast to the less-than-convincing performance of key EU players in Paris and Berlin who, far from mimicking Warsaw’s clarity of purpose, have failed to rise to the challenge presented by Putin’s invasion,” Coughlin wrote.