LOS ANGELES (OC).–Poland’s 68-year-old Prime Minister Donald Tusk, formerly President of the European Council, said today that Poland reserves the right to shoot down any foreign object that strays into its airspace, a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Poland claims that Russia sent drone across its borders, creating a big stir in NATO with foreign ministers invoking Article 4 for joint consultations. Tusks new warning primarily directed to Moscow is another ominous sign that NATO has let the situation in Ukraine get out of hand. Tusk said that Poland will take a cautious approach but warned the Kremlin that the next incident could be met with deadly force. President Donald Trump has worked feverishly to get a peace deal in Ukraine to preempt the possibility of escalation that could spread the Ukraine War into WW III or nuclear war on the European Continent.
Tusk’s stern warning is not the kind of diplomatic language you want to see from a country that sits on the Russian border. Poland was not officially a Soviet Satellite during the Cold War, from the end of WW II to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. But certainly Poland’s leader during the Cold War Wojciech Jaruzelski had close ties to Moscow, governing Poland with an iron grip through the post-WW II period. Tusk’s remarks were unnecessary because Putin said whatever happened recently was not an aggressive act but an accident that ruffled a lot of feathers in NATO. NATO, as represented by the European Union, seems to conflate Ukraine’s War with the Kremlin to future concerns in the EU that Putin has his eyes set on other European countries. Putin has never said to any journalist that he wants to pick a fight with NATO over EU territory.
Estonia claimed that three Russian fighter jets strayed in its airspace Sept. 9, prompting NATO’s call to invoke Article 4. NATO is so concerned about Russian incursions into its members airspace that it called for a U.N. Security Council meeting today. “We will take the decision to shoot down flying objects when they violate our territory and fly over Poland—there is absolutely no discussion about that,” Tusk told a press conference. When talking about taking aggressive action against Russia, NATO better be prepared to back up its warnings. After three-and-a-half years of the Ukraine War, tensions have hit a fever’s pitch at NATO, with the Baltic States and Poland seeing Russia as a clear-and-present danger to their survival. So, European security has not shifted to backing Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky in his battle with the Kremlin.
Trump went in the exact opposite direction than Zelensky and the EU, urging all parties to cut a deal even if they don’t get everything they warn. Trump and his peace envoy Steve Witkoff have met with Putin five time over the last several months to get a clear read on what it would take to get a peace deal. Putin has insisted on retaining territory he’s won over three-and-a-half years of war, something not rejected by Zelensky and the EU. EU officials, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer agree with Zelensky that no territory can be ceded to Putin because it invites him to seize more EU territory in the future. But the Ukraine War is a unique situation, having little to do with EU. Putin has never expressed any desire to take on NATO or seek any more territory in the European Union.
Tusk’s warning might be a bluff with him qualifying the conditions in which Poland would shoot down Russia drone or flights. “When we’re dealing with situations that aren’t entirely clear, such as the recent flight of Russia fighter jets over the Petrobaltic platform—but without any violation, because there aren’t our territorial waters—you really need to thin twice before deciding on actions that could trigger a ver acute phase of the conflict,” Tusk said. So, as much as Tusk wants to send a warning Putin, he knows he’s in no position to start a wider war in the EU with Russia and must act cautiously. Unlike the EU, Putin has been on a war footing for a long time, dealing with EU sanctions, forcing him to take a more aggressive approach in the region. Putin invaded Ukraine because he saw the U.S. arming Ukraine to the teeth with lethal U.S. weapons.
Putin has been caught between in rock-and-a-hard-place dealing with Russian national security when he sees the U.S. and EU encroaching on Russia.. Former President Joe Biden ignored Putin’s requests to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine. Biden, instead, kept arming Ukraine to the point Putin thought he must do something to stop the U.S. threat. After Biden said March 26, 2022 the aim to the U.S. mission in Ukraine was to degrade the Russian military to point it could no longer wage war, that was enough for Putin. Biden essentially declared war on the Kremlin and kept supplying Ukraine with lethal arms. When it comes to ending the war, Putin wants to collect his spoils of lengthy war that’s cost billion and tens-of-thousands of Russian casualties. So, when Tusk starts threatening Putin, he’d better be prepared for the consequences.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
