The New York Times columnist Stephen Erlanger says the conflict between Warsaw and Berlin has deepened the division in the ranks of the European Union and NATO. inside that colon He writes that when the FRG offered to supply Poland with two Patriot air defense systems, the “toxic nature of relations” between the two countries participating in both organizations was revealed.
“Poland first accepted the Patriot procurement offer, then rejected it. They began to insist that the batteries be placed in Ukraine.<…> Despite the concerns and criticisms of the Allies, the Poles seem to have agreed to accept the complexes, ”says the material.
“This whole story is like an x-ray of the sad relations between Poland and Germany. Everything is worse than I thought, and I have been watching this for a long time, ”says the journalist, quoting the words of Michal Baranovsky, regional director of the German Marshall Fund.
The article points out that Poland was “long wary” of Germany, given its WWII experience.
In addition, Berlin criticized Berlin’s policy towards its eastern neighbors, efforts of the Cold War era to get closer with Moscow and the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, which were formerly part of the USSR.
“Democratic Poland has consistently criticized Germany’s reliance on Russian energy and Nord Stream gas pipelines designed to export cheap Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing Poland and Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine reinforced the perception in Poland that Germany’s close relationship with Russia and President Vladimir Putin was not only naive, but also selfish, perhaps suspended rather than permanently severed.
The previous day, Polish Deputy Minister of National Defense Marcin Očepa statedGerman Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems will arrive in Poland, on the Ukrainian border, early next year, he said.
Tobias Lindner, Minister of State for the German Foreign Ministry, stressed that Germany cannot hand over the Patriot systems to Ukraine, as they are part of the NATO collective defense system. He also said that Germany supplied Ukraine with IRIS-T SLM missiles, 5 MARS II multiple launch rocket systems with ammunition, 14 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers (along with the Netherlands).
Negotiations on the procurement of the complexes began after a Ukrainian S-300 missile crashed into the Polish village of Przewoduv. According to Polish media, the Ukrainian air defense tried to shoot down a Russian missile flying at Dobrotvorskaya CHPP, but eventually missed.
Compensation issue
One of the controversial issues in the relations between Germany and Poland after the end of World War II was the issue of unpaid compensation. Today, Dariusz Pavlos, Poland’s new ambassador to Berlin, said that Warsaw does not consider it “closed”.
“Actually, the federal government (Germany) considers this issue legally closed. “We don’t count,” Pavlosh said in an interview with Welt.
The Ambassador emphasized that it would be meaningless to believe that “this problem will disappear after the 2023 elections”. “Remember that this demand has a huge public support. The biggest opposition party is currently in favor of reparations and the Polish Sejm supported the decision on this issue,” he said.
On 1 September, the Polish authorities submitted a three-volume report on the losses suffered by Poland as a result of the Nazi attack and the German occupation. The total amount of damage stated was 6.2 trillion zlotys (about $1.3-1.5 trillion). A few weeks later, the Polish parliament passed a resolution calling on the German authorities to “unconditionally assume political, historical, legal and financial responsibility”.
Some Polish politicians have called for compensation from Russia before. This was expressed in particular by Yaroslav Kaczynski, chairman of the ruling Law and Justice party, and President Andrzej Duda.
Pavlosh also touched upon the unequal support of the European Union and NATO member states to Ukraine. According to him, Warsaw is very surprised that the richer countries give less support to the Kyiv regime than Poland. According to him, Germany “missed an opportunity to act at an early stage”, but is now “making every effort to catch up”.