Asked if he wants Ukraine to win the war with Russia, former US President Donald Trump twice evaded directly answering the question in Tuesday night’s debate. In marked contrast, Vice-President Kamala Harris was direct and to the point, lauding Washington’s and NATO’s support for Ukraine and calling for it to continue.
Otherwise, she observed, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe — starting with Poland.” Then, addressing her opponent directly, she asked, “why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favour and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?”
Harris’s emphasis on the importance of standing up to Putin struck a chord in NATO member Poland, wedged as it is between its European Union partners to the west and, to the east, the Russian region of Kaliningrad, Moscow’s ally Belarus and Ukraine. The war is a day-to-day reality in Poland, whether in the form of accidental incursions into Polish airspace or the large numbers of refugees who have settled there.
Trump’s presidency was initially greeted warmly in Poland. The ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government shared many of his positions, especially in terms of their opposition to migration. Also, as one of the largest spenders on defence among the NATO membership, Poland was well disposed to Trump’s repeated calls that others in the alliance should contribute a bigger percentage towards the overall costs of defence.
However, from the moment Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Poles have lived with the real fear that were Putin to prevail in Ukraine, he could then turn his sights on areas in the region that once were under Moscow’s control — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, for example. These concerns have grown exponentially since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022, becoming more acute each time Russia has gained momentum on the battlefield.
