When a Russian airstrike hit a large military base in Ukraine just 15 miles from the Polish border, it drew instant international attention. The attack stood at strategically given its proximity to the territory of a Nato member. Any attack on Polish soil would trigger an automatic response from Nato countries and represent a major escalation of the conflict.
The Baltic states and Poland have been warning western countries about Russia for years. Recently, Radosław Sikorski, former Polish foreign minister and current member of the European Parliament, expressed frustration over western states patronising eastern ones for years by suggesting they were “over-nervous” and “over-sensitive” about the Russian threat.
There is a long history of distrust between Poland and Russia that is not attributable to over-sensitivity or prejudice. Poland experienced Russian, Austrian and Prussian partitions three times in the 18th and 19th century – a history that casts a long shadow. In 1939, the Soviet Union’s foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, signed an appeasement with Germany and declared the end of the Polish government, enabling Germany to takeover Poland.
