“A huge fire that burned the largest shopping center in the Polish capital Warsaw to the ground a year ago was set deliberately by people acting on behalf of Russia, Donald Tusk said Sunday.
European countries, particularly those in the east of the bloc, have been plagued by Russian espionage in recent years. Arson attacks are another common tool used as part of Russia’s hybrid warfare strategy.
“We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping center in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by Russian special services,” Tusk said. “Some of the perpetrators have already been detained, all the others are identified and [are being] sought. We will get you all!”
Tusk had said in March that evidence from Lithuania suggested Russia was to blame for the attack, in line with suspicions in Poland, but his statement on Sunday was unequivocal in assigning responsibility to Russia.
The Lithuanian investigation found that a May 9, 2024 arson attack on an IKEA store in Vilnius, as well as the May 12, 2024 Marywilska fire, were set by Ukrainian citizens acting on behalf of Russia, Tusk wrote in March. A week earlier, Polish prosecutors had said a Belarusian refugee was responsible.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-warsaw-poland-fire-donald-tusk/
Poland confronts Belarus and Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdSCf-tyBu4
A lot of parallels between Hitler’s invasion of Poland and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sdyP6Qc57A
“Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday accused Russia of planning a major terrorist campaign against aircraft.
“I can only confirm that Russia planned acts of air terror, not just against Poland but against airlines across the globe,” said Tusk during a meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The New York Times reported in recent days that U.S. intelligence warned the White House that Russia was planning to smuggle incendiary devices onto cargo planes heading to the U.S. The White House, according to the Times, warned the Kremlin to stop the operation.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-planned-terror-attacks-airlines-around-world-donald-tusk-says/
Eastern European countries were brought and kept in the Warsaw pact by force. These countries wanted to join NATO because they were afraid Russia would invade them.
Before many of them joined NATO, Russia was already violently intervening in its neighbors.
Poland threatened to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself, and got involved in U.S. politics to push for it joining NATO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWK_euAwrMk
“global warming is now taking a backseat to economic woes and the war in Ukraine. Governments seem not to be in a hurry to start a discussion on new climate targets. While a handful of EU countries, Denmark among them, have endorsed a 90 percent target for 2040, others, including Poland, aren’t yet ready to do so.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-all-but-guaranteed-to-miss-global-deadline-for-climate-targets/
Chinese Troops Deploy to Poland’s Border
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbMDf31t5UY
“The Polish government stunned Washington on Tuesday by announcing it was ready to transfer its 28 MiG-29 fighter planes to the U.S., with the understanding that they would be handed over to Ukrainian pilots fighting off the Russian invasion.
The move, which came with a request that the U.S. supply Poland with used jets with “corresponding capabilities,” came after a week of back-and-forth negotiations between Washington and Warsaw over transferring the jets to Ukraine, which needs replacement jets to fight off the Russians.
After vociferous denials by Warsaw that it was even considering donating MiGs to Ukraine, the offer arrived completely unexpected.
A senior administration official told POLITICO that the U.S. intelligence community and the Defense Department have been opposed to the transfer of the Polish planes to Ukraine, due to the complications in getting them over the border and into the hands of Ukrainian pilots. The Polish government also didn’t consult with their U.S. counterparts before making the announcement.
A statement by Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby reflected that deep concern late Tuesday, saying “we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one,” and it is “simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it.”
Kirby signaled the logistics were problematic: refitting the aircraft to allow non-NATO Ukrainian pilots to fly them, along with “the prospect of fighter jets … departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance,” he said.”
“Of all the innumerable “horrors,” the diplomat said the worst aspect of Trump is the chaos he brings to the world arena: “The lack of being able to plan, the lack of being able to extrapolate from a normal set of facts and arguments what might be a course of action that the United States might take.
“Even if you don’t like it, it’s useful to have an idea of where they are going,” the diplomat said.
Radosław Sikorski, a former Polish defense minister and longtime foreign minister, called Trump’s first term “an extraordinary saga of bluster and incompetence.”
Now a member of the European Parliament and leader of its delegation for U.S. relations, Sikorski said he expected a second Trump term would feature more of the same, including when it comes to the president’s preference for courting authoritarian leaders over traditional, liberal democratic allies.”