#EU-Poland conflict

[head-post]

Polish farmers block rail links with Ukraine

On 18 February, Polish farmers completely blocked the movement of trucks in both directions at the international checkpoint Dorohusk-Jahodyn and disrupted railway communication with Ukraine, Ukrainian media reported.

Since 9:00 Kyiv time, Polish farmers have been completely blocking the movement of lorries in both directions at the Dorohusk-Jahodyn international checkpoint. The farmers are holding a large-scale protest on the access roads to the village of Dorohusk.

Despite the protesters’ promises to let perishable, dangerous or humanitarian goods through, not a single heavy vehicle has crossed the border since then. The State Customs Service of Ukraine noted that shuttle buses passed through normally without queues.

As of 16 February, Polish farmers blocked six checkpoints on the border with Ukraine.

Read more HERE

[niveditaabaidya]

Belarus Arms Emergency Ministry To Be Ready In Case Of Armed Conflict. #...

[withnofreetime]

HETALIA ☆ WORLD STARS (521)

Is there a problem/error? Please say so! And thank you for your support!

Spanish version ↓ and T/N.

T/N:

P.1.

"Cazzo", "f*ck!"

"Bastardo", "Bastard"

About Cost. (GDP; millions, aprox.)

Austria -> € 447 - $ 526 182

Netherlands -> € 941* - $ 1,092,748

Hungary -> € 188,443* - $ 203 829

Romania -> € 278,005* - $ 300,691

Bulgaria --> € 83,529 - $ 90,346

*not official, conversion ($ -> €)

P.2.

"Schengen Agreement" Overview, a kind of timeline.

"Conflict Bulgaria & Romania and Austria". Due to the increase in illegal inmigration and corruption in both countries, Austria had refused Bulgaria's entry many times.

"Schengen Area" because it was signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.

Another timeline! (2023)

Extract from Wikipedia: "On 8 December 2022 the Justice and Home Affairs Council voted to admit Croatia to the Schengen Area, but rejected Bulgaria and Romania. Austria and the Netherlands voted against the inclusion of Bulgaria and Romania, with Austria claiming that there had been a rapid increase in the number of migrants using the West Balkan route to enter the EU illegally. 20 On 30 December 2023 the EU agreed to include Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen Area, with Austria no longer vetoing the enlargement of the area. Air and sea ports no longer conduct border checks from 31 March 2024, while the end of land border checks require further discussions."

"About Hungary & Bulgaria". If the information is correct, there was a "threat" from the Hungarian government to vote against Bulgaria's entry into the agreement if they didn't solve the Russian gas problem, yeah, taxes.

But they did it! Press realese, European Comission.

"Romanian Industry". Talks more about Poland and Romania's future struggles in the industry.

"Bulgaria, and 'rich kid' allegations" Probably talking about the Golden Age of Bulgaria, first Empire in the mid 19-century. Or the Second Golden Age. The Bizantine Empire and the Italian Kingdom had economic relationships with the first Bulgarian Empire.

P.3.

"Netherlands & Bulgaria". The Netherlands government was against Bulgaria and Romania's entry. And then not.

P.4.

"yправител" in Bulgarian. It might mean "general", "manager" or "administrator".

SPANISH VERSION

Italia habla de Bulgaria y Romania como si tuviera 80 años. Me saqué un 85% en mi examen de C2 de Español... no es una parodia por COMPLETO, pero tampoco lo tomen en serio.

¿Hay un problema y/o error? Por favor de comunicar, ¡y gracias por su apoyo!

[alwida10]

Ugh. I hate getting political, so have some bullet points.

- Putin laments the fact that the Soviet Union has vanished. One of his major goals is to re-establish it. This has been said openly.

- the Soviet Union included regions young people from today know only as autonomous countries, including Armenia, Aserbaidschan, Estland, Georgia, Kasachstan, Kirgisien, Lettland, Litauen, Moldawien, Tadschikistan, Turkmenien/Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Usbekistan, Belarus. (Countries in bold are the countries I remember evidence of Russia has tampered with. Might be more, since my memory sucks.)

- to ensure the comeback of the Soviet Union, Putin (Russia) uses war tactics to destabilize, control and manipulate the countries to make it more likely to re-unite with Russia. Remember how Belarus’s elections have been tampered with and the bloody crushing of the protests? Moldavia has been calling for help regarding the Russian troops in their country. If you haven’t heard about Ukraine, this post isn’t for you.

- if you are able to read Russian, it’s easy to find the war plan Russia has developed to ensure this goal, including the annexation of Ukraine, Moldavia up to attacks on Poland and east-Germany.

- the biggest problem for Russia to reach this goal is the NATO, and that mostly because the USA had the NATO’s back.

- as long as the nato stands together it’s almost impossible for Putin to reach his goal.

- “devide and conquer”

-by now it’s well documented that Russian involvement led to Trump’s victory.

- the same people, who organized Trump’s campaign, later campaigned for the pro-Brexit side.

- Trump (being right wing) wanted the US to leave the NATO. Brexit has weakened the cohesion in the EU.

- the right wing parties have been growing in Europe. Italy and Netherland have already elected right wing parties as their leadership. The right wing party in Germany is most likely the second strongest party in the eu elections right now. (Yes, the modern day Nazis. Yes, Nazis.)

- right wing parties are more likely to say “what do I care about my neighbors getting bombed? I’m caring about MY people.” They support getting big (hence powerful) positions such as the NATO getting divided into smaller, easier to beat fractions. Poland does not stand a chance against Russia on its own. The NATO does.

- both Iran (because of the conflict in the Middle East) and China (because of their intend to annex Taiwan) love and support Putin’s tactic to divide and weaken the NATO. The USA are madly powerful, but not even they are able to take on three nuclear powers at the same time.

——

k, why am I talking about this?

-> if you come across anti-Biden, anti-EU, anti-democrat, pro-segregation posts or opinions you NEED to ask yourself if this might be political manipulation to weaken your country. It had been the young voters who put Trump out of office. It’s the young voters Russia and other manipulative powers have on their radar now. YOU are the target to reach their goals.

-> yes, this includes pro-Palestine messaging if it leads into a “don’t vote for Biden” narrative.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Victor Davis Hanson

Scan news accounts of anti-Israel campus and street protestors. Read their demands and manifestos. Collate the confusion after October 7 from the Biden administration.

“Progressive Hamas”: Gay and transgendered student protestors in America would be in mortal danger in Gaza under a fascistic Hamas that has banned homosexual acts and lifestyles. Anyone protesting publicly against Hamas or its allies would be arrested and severely punished.

Women are segregated in most Hamas-run educational institutions. Under the Hamas charter, women are valued mostly as child-bearers. By design, there are almost no women in high positions in business or in government under Hamas.

“Colonists and Settlers”: Students scream that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists” and sometimes yell at Jewish students to “go back to Poland.”

But the Jewish presence in present-day Israel is deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Dating back at least three millennia, the concept of “Israel” as a distinct Jewish state, situated roughly in its current location, is ingrained in history.

By contrast, the much later Arab invasions of the Byzantine-controlled Levant and their arrival in Palestine occurred about 1800 years after the establishment of a Jewish Israel.

“Two-state Solution”: When student protestors scream “from the river to the sea,” that is not advocacy for a two-state solution. It is a call to eliminate the state of Israel—lying in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea—and its 10 million Jewish and Arab citizens. The Hamas charter is a one-state/no-Israel agenda, which we saw attempted on October 7.

“Occupied Gaza”: Gaza was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.

So on October 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas cancelled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians. Israel hosts two million Arabs, both as Israeli citizens and residents.

“Netanyahu is the Problem”: The U.S. and Europe claim that the conservative government of Benjamin Netanyahu is alone behind the Israeli tough response in Gaza. Thus, both the EU and the U.S. are doing their best to undermine or even overthrow the elected Netanyahu administration.

Yet, most Israelis support Netanyahu’s coalition government’s agenda of destroying Hamas in Gaza. There is no evidence that any other alternative Israeli government would do anything differently from the present policies toward Hamas.

“Targeting Civilians”: After murdering nearly 1,200 Israelis on October 7, Hamas scurried back to Gaza and hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques. Its preplanned strategy was to survive by ensuring Gaza civilians would be killed. Hamas has indiscriminately launched more than 7,000 rockets at Israel, all designed to kill Jewish civilians.

Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere, and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.

“Protestors Are Pro-Palestine”: Increasingly, protestors make no distinction between supporting “Palestine” and Hamas. Their chants often echo the original Hamas eliminationist charter and recent genocidal ravings of its leadership. Some protestors wear Hamas logos and wave its flag. Many cheered the Hamas massacre of October 7.

“Anti-Israel Is Not Anti-Semitic”: When protestors scream to Jewish students to “go back to Poland” or call for the “Final Solution,” or assault them or bar them from campus facilities, they do not ask whether they are pro-Israeli. For protestors, anyone identifiable as Jewish becomes a target of their anti-Semitic invective and violence.

“Genocide”: Israel has not tried to wipe out the Palestinian people in the fashion of Hamas’s one-state solution plan for Jews. Before October 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel—on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.

If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israeli Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the October 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.

According to Hamas’s questionable “genocide” figures, roughly 4 percent of the Gazan population died during the Israeli response to October 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.

“Disproportionate Response”: Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three. Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the IDF responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn citizens.

Israel has been disproportionate only in the effectiveness of its response. Hamas and its Iranian benefactor intended disproportionately to hurt Israel but utterly failed.

So Israel proved to be competent, and Hamas incompetent in their similar efforts to use disproportionate force.

[septembriseur]

‘Dutch citizens Abdulaal Hussein, a 24-year-old actor, and Martine Doppen, a 30-year-old climate campaigner, have been released on bail but are due to stand trial later this year.

Hussein, a Dutch citizen of Sudanese origin, said his younger sister Mabroka left Sudan last spring after taking part in a documentary that highlighted her activism against the regime there and receiving threats.

After making it to Egypt, desperate to reach the safety of Europe, she paid intermediaries to help her with a journey via Russia and Belarus. Her group was able to successfully cross the border to Latvia but the smugglers left her and a group of four other Sudanese people at an abandoned farmhouse, where she was stuck without food, water or heating.

“When she was able to contact us with her location, we tried to find someone in Latvia who could help her but it was impossible, so we decided to go there ourselves and rescue her,” Doppen said. A shaky handheld video shows the moment of joy when Hussein and his sister were reunited. He and Doppen took Mabroka and two other Sudanese women in the group to their car and drove them to an acquaintance’s house in Lithuania.

She and Hussein were driven by the human instinct to help people in need, she said, and they knew that if the Latvian authorities caught the refugees they would probably be pushed back to Belarus.

The route through Belarus into the EU has been used by many people since 2021, when the dictatorial regime of Alexander Lukashenko was accused of weaponising migration by allowing people from conflict-stricken countries to enter Belarus and then encouraging them to cross the border.

Activists say that, even if that was initially true, many of those who cross the border are genuinely in need and deserving of having their asylum claims heard. Instead, guards in Poland and Latvia have been accused of violent “pushbacks”, not allowing people who cross to claim asylum. Often they are then stuck in a forested grey zone for days or weeks as Belarusian guards do not allow them to return further into Belarus. Many people have died at the border over the past three years.

…Hussein, who has worked as a volunteer to help newly arrived refugees integrate into Dutch society, said he felt it was deeply unfair to put someone on trial for trying to help people in need, when the motive was only humanitarian and not financial.’

[mariacallous]

While the failure to break through Russia’s fortified defensive lines on the southern axis this summer has been disappointing for Kyiv, the news on the diplomatic and political front is far more alarming.

Speaking about the progress of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in early December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Associated Press: “We wanted faster results. From that perspective, unfortunately, we did not achieve the desired results. And this is a fact.”

While Ukraine has achieved some limited successes this year, with results in the Black Sea in the summer and a Kherson-region bridgehead firmly established east of the Dnipro River in the fall, the lack of significant territorial gains is a bitter pill to swallow for Kyiv.

But despite these setbacks, with the final taboos overcome regarding providing the heavy weaponry and long-range missile capabilities needed to win this war, the trajectory of the conflict was still arguably trending in Ukraine’s favor, according to many Western military experts, just as long as the coalition of democratic nation states maintaining Ukraine’s wartime economy held strong and the arms transfers kept arriving.

Winter’s developments, however, paint a far worse picture. Given the immense risks ahead, it is imperative that Kyiv starts preparing now for a future in which that coalition has fragmented.

In Europe, election victories for allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovakia’s Robert Fico and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders have potentially added further blocks on European Union financial and military aid packages. Hungary’s Viktor Orban now has more leverage in his attempts to disrupt the bloc’s Ukraine policy, including holding up a new round of sanctions on Russia and a proposed 50 billion euro ($54.9 billion) aid package, even if his opposition to the EU opening accession talks for Ukraine has been successfully navigated by the bloc.

Orban was previously isolated inside the EU, which overtook the United States as the largest overall donor of aid to Ukraine over the summer. If Wilders manages to form a governing coalition and become prime minister, it could not only imperil the planned transfer of Dutch F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, but also become a major threat to future EU aid packages going forward.

Winter has also seen a truck driver protest in Poland and Slovakia, which have been blocking Ukrainian border crossings in a dispute over EU permits for Ukrainian shipping companies, which has in turn impacted the flow of volunteer military aid coming into Ukraine.

While Kyiv will be disappointed by these events, they are not insurmountable. Support for Ukraine remains high in Brussels, and Orban has proved himself capable of relenting on similar packages in the past, leveraging Hungary’s veto in exchange for EU concessions toward Budapest. Individually, member states such as Germany and the Baltic nations also continue to send substantial military aid to Kyiv outside of the structures of the European Union.

The news from the United States, however, is far more bleak. Speaking to reporters on Dec. 4, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan laid out in stark terms that the funds allocated by the government for Ukraine were spent, warning that if Congress did not pass further funding bills, it would impact Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.

“Each week that passes, our ability to fully fund what we feel is necessary to give Ukraine the tools and capacities it needs to both defend its territory and continue to make advances, that gets harder and harder,” Sullivan said.

The White House has been trying to pass a $61.4 billion aid package for Ukraine (part of which would go to replenishing U.S. Defense Department stocks), tied together with a package of aid to Israel and Taiwan, which is being blocked by congressional Republicans in a dispute over the Biden administration’s border policies.

Despite a majority of Republicans supporting increased military aid to Ukraine, bills trying to secure further funding have stalled in both the Senate and the House of Representatives since the caucus of far-right, pro-Trump House Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy as the speaker of the House of Representatives, replacing him with Ukraine military aid opponent Mike Johnson.

After Johnson was elected speaker, he appeared to walk back his opposition to Ukraine funding, in an apparent bid to win over some of his Reaganite skeptics in the Republican Party. However, he has chosen to try to leverage the urgency of the Biden administration’s Ukraine package to advance the Republicans’ anti-immigration platform.

This is no longer isolated to the House, as even pro-Ukraine senators, such as Lindsey Graham, joined Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in blocking the White House’s security package amid chaotic scenes in the Senate. With Senate Republicans falling in line with the legislative agenda of the House’s hard-right “Freedom Caucus” Republican wing, Ukraine will enter the Christmas period under sustained Russian aerial bombardment with depleted air defense ammunition stocks.

The United States is incapable of replenishing those stocks due to the domestic political wrangling of a small band of hard-line, anti-immigration Republican lawmakers, and Ukrainian civilians will likely die as a result of this amoral legislative obstinance. In Kyiv, where I live, the sense that these conservative lawmakers are willing to recklessly endanger Ukrainian lives for selfish political ends is palpable.

The Biden administration has expressed a willingness to compromise in order to try to break the impasse, but there is no certainty in where these negotiations could go. The size of this aid bill is itself a strategic move. The $61.4 billion package dwarfs any of the previous U.S. aid packages to Ukraine (which as of August 2023 totaled more than $77 billion), representing a more “one and done” approach to meeting Ukraine’s military aid needs for the entirety of 2024 and the remainder of President Joe Biden’s term.

If it passes, there will be no further opportunities in the short term for the Make America Great Again caucus to hold Ukrainian aid to ransom.

But the problems don’t stop there. The United States and Europe have both failed to produce enough artillery ammunition to meet Ukraine’s needs, and this shortfall led to South Korea becoming a larger supplier of artillery ammunition in 2023 than all European nations combined. But Korea’s supplies are not limitless, and U.S. and European production is still not at the levels needed to sustain Ukraine going forward. If this shortfall is not addressed, the consequences could be disastrous.

There are more hopeful signs that these problems are well understood, and that the coalition of nations supporting Ukraine remains committed to the cause in the long term. “Wars develop in phases,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in a recent interview with the German public broadcaster ARD in early December. “We have to support Ukraine in both good and bad times,” he said.

Everything now points to a long war in Ukraine, although none of this should have been unforeseeable for Western policymakers and defense chiefs. Ukraine’s top military c, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, gave a much-publicized interview with the Economist in November, in which he said “just like in the first world war, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.”

These comments, however, despite appearing to create the impression of a public rift between Zaluzhny and Zelensky, are not a concession of defeat from the four-star general. Zaluzhny made clear that he is trying to avoid the kind of grinding attritional warfare that favors Russia’s long-term strategy for wearing Ukraine down.

But a long war also heightens one of the biggest threats. Even if the Biden administration manages to get the new aid package over the line, effectively securing Ukraine’s military funding for 2024, the specter of another presidency for Donald Trump still looms large on the horizon. The polling for Biden less than one year away from an election is deeply concerning, and Trump’s prospects for victory need to be taken seriously, even in the face of his growing legal jeopardy.

A second Trump presidency would imperil not just U.S. democracy, but also the entire global world order, and the consequences for Ukraine could be potentially devastating. Trump’s refusal to commit to continuing to support Ukraine should be setting off alarm bells—not just in Kyiv, but across Europe too, where the greatest impacts from this change of policy would be felt.

Trump’s first impeachment was over his attempt to extort Ukraine to search for compromising material that he could use against Biden in the 2020 election, and there is no reason to believe that Trump has moved on from this. Many in Washington expect that a second Trump presidency will be marked by his desire for revenge against anyone that stood in his way. As the U.S. analyst and author Michael Weiss told me, “Trump’s first impeachment was over Ukraine, and he sees it as an abscess to be lanced. … A Trump presidency would be an unmitigated disaster for Ukraine.”

There are also signs that the Russians are acutely aware of this, and that their strategy in the short-to-medium term is simply to hold out in Ukraine long enough for a Trump presidency to pull the plug on the vital military aid keeping the Ukrainians in the fight. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently remarked that the Russians expect the war to last beyond 2025, and in an address to his own propaganda think tank, Putin said that Ukraine would have a “week to live” if Western arms supplies were halted.

Ukraine cannot plan for a war that may extend beyond 2025 without preparing for a potential Trump presidency and all that would entail. The Ukrainian government must prepare for every eventuality, including a White House that is actively hostile toward Kyiv. To his credit, Zelensky appears to have acknowledged this possibility, going as far as inviting Trump to visit Kyiv.

Putin has made it perfectly clear that he sees his war in Ukraine as being part of a wider war that he is waging against the entire West. Western policymakers to take him at his word on this. Putin and his regime have been waging a hybrid war against the West for many years, and he considers his support for European extremists such as Fico, Wilders and France’s Marine Le Pen to be part of that war and part of undermining the Western liberal democratic institutions, such as the EU and NATO, that stand in opposition to Putin’s tyranny.

But there is no single individual on the planet more important to Putin’s global war agenda than his pet authoritarian in Mar-a-Lago.

Moscow’s goals in Ukraine remain unchanged; the Putin regime still maintains maximalist aims in Ukraine and is in this war for the long haul, with the total subjugation of Kyiv as its goal. Putin made his position very clear during his annual news conference. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also been explicit about this, and Europe should take the ongoing threat that a Trump administration poses to Ukraine seriously. There may well be a potential future in which Europe is forced to carry the burden of Ukraine’s war without its North American ally at the helm of the coalition, or even at the head of the collective defense strategy at the heart of European foreign policy.

Looking forward to 2024, there remains no path to peace in Ukraine without a Russian defeat. Looking beyond 2025, the future of Ukraine as a free and democratic nation-state, and potentially the entire security of Europe, hang in the balance.

This is why Europe, in particular, cannot afford to be complacent in the face of the rising threat of a Trump presidency. Opening EU accession talks for Ukraine is a good start, but until the bloc can match or outperform Russia’s current levels of ammunition production, the tide will start to turn against Ukraine if U.S. leadership on this war continues to falter. The truth is that U.S. leadership on this and on any other pressing international issue cannot be guaranteed.

For Ukraine to stand a chance of victory, its allies must begin preparing for catastrophe now.

[darkmaga-retard]

Most wars are destructive and pointless. Such is the Russo–Ukrainian conflict. However it ends, little will have been gained for the mass death and destruction inflicted.

Moreover, the war could have been easily avoided. Russia’s Vladimir Putin should not have invaded Moscow’s neighbor. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky could have pursued the peace policy on which he ran. The allies had no cause to expand NATO up to Russia’s borders or absorb Kiev into their sphere of interest. So many people have suffered for so little reason.

As expected, truth was one of the war’s first victims. American and European officials assiduously sought to avoid responsibility for the conflict they encouraged. Having essentially brought NATO into Ukraine after promising to bring Ukraine into NATO, they denied the many assurances to the contrary they offered to and the many protests about their duplicity they received from Moscow. 

Kiev, too, dispensed with the truth when in its interest and attempted to manipulate Washington and other NATO members. For instance, in November 2022 Zelensky urged NATO to attack Russia in response to an errant Ukrainian missile strike in Poland. If the American and Polish militaries knew the launch came from Ukraine, surely the Ukrainian military did so as well.

Equally deceptive was the claim that Moscow blew up its own natural gas pipelines, Nord Stream 1 and 2, constructed in the face of concerted U.S. and European opposition. After the September 2022 explosion Kiev charged Russia with the crime. A Zelensky aide called it “nothing more [than] a terrorist attack planned by Russia and act of aggression towards the EU.” Other allied leaders blamed Moscow. So did American and allied commentators, who offered assertions rather than evidence. The credulous Western media speculated why Moscow would disable its $19 billion assets. Some allied governments even cited the Putin government’s denials as evidence of its involvement. 

[warningsine]

As Russian artillery rained down on the Ukrainian city of Kherson last year, one girl found a surprising way of processing the horror that was taking place. She passed the time in a bomb shelter playing the stark, many would say depressing, video game This War of Mine.

There is a critical burden for every Ukrainian this winter. For her, it is trying to make sense of a terrible conflict. For Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it is getting the weapons and international support to fight Russia and keep strategic momentum on his country’s side. For his soldiers, it is trying to keep morale up and stay warm in freezing temperatures. And for the almost 8 million Ukrainian refugees that the war has created, it is trying to rebuild lives in foreign countries.

A disproportionate number are doing so in Poland, which has registered more than 1.4 million of them for temporary protection, the largest number of any EU country, according to ReliefWeb.

The country’s particularly strong solidarity is replicated across Eastern Europe. Warsaw resident Konrad Adamczewski puts it down to proximity: “This was a war that broke out in a neighbouring country. You could immediately see people coming to Poland for shelter.”

The company he works for, 11 bit studios, made the bestselling This War of Mine. The unnamed Ukrainian girl in the basement got in contact at some point last year to thank them for the help the game gave her.

11 bit studios has been showing its solidarity since the beginning of the war in other ways, too. Within hours of Russia’s campaign, the company launched a fundraiser. For a week, all proceeds from sales of This War of Mine would be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross. Some $850,000 was raised, far exceeding what the company had expected. “The impact was huge. We were very happy we could contribute, but it was also hugely sad that in 2022 the message of the game was once again so vivid,” Mr Adamczewski told me.

It was a remarkable achievement financially. But, as Mr Adamczewski went on to say, it is only when you look at the content of the game itself that you realise quite how apt the campaign was on deeper levels. “We developed this as a game about peace. Immediately we saw people commenting online that the scenes of innocent people suffering unfolding on the news looked like This War of Mine.”

The game is, after all, entirely about war, but barely about soldiers. Instead, civilians are the protagonists in an unnamed conflict, as they try to survive and not lose hope in the process. Winning, if it can even be called that, is not triumph in battle, but just to survive until the end of the siege.

The setting is loosely based of the siege of Sarajevo, one of the longest in modern history, in which non-combatants were often forced into otherwise immoral acts to survive, be it hoarding resources, theft or even violence. But if the game had been released in 2022, Mariupol, Bakhmut or Kherson could well have been the inspiration.

Now the game is helping children outside Ukraine as well. At the end of 2022, it was officially included in Poland’s curriculum. Teacher Ilona Starosta says she uses it in her classes because of its many perspectives. “Students wonder what it means to win a game like this. Does winning mean surviving? Does it make sense to survive at all costs?”

These questions are not delivered in abstract debates. Players might be in the shoes of Adam, who struggles to get medicine for his ill child as he tries to untangle his own mind from severe shell shock. Or they might be journalist Malik, who has to balance the need to broadcast life-saving information with not angering a censorious military.

For Mr Adamczewski, the potential for explaining these dilemmas makes gaming a uniquely powerful tool for learning: “When children study literature, there is often a question of what the author had in mind. But in games, you become the author.”

The depth of the game has caught global attention. In the UK, London’s Imperial War Museum features it as an installation in its War Games exhibition, which opened in September. Curators placed it next to artefacts that captives made during the Second World War to create a sense of normality during extreme hardship; they include a teapot, given to an English prisoner of war by a Polish comrade, and improvised cigarettes. In the US, the game is featured in New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Video Games and Other Interactive Design, which also opened in September.

However much renewed attention the game is getting globally, it remains a success firmly rooted in Poland. Like many other places in Eastern Europe, the country has a remarkably creative independent gaming sector.

As a developer, Mr Adamczewski says that the arrival of personal computers in the 1980s was a radical opportunity to learn more about life outside the communist bloc. More simply, people also wanted to use them to play games. With no access to ones developed in the West, people started developing their own. This wider wave of tech curiosity and the chance to start afresh after the fall of the Soviet Union are reasons that Eastern Europe has much better internet connectivity than richer western European countries.

But more than just a leading economic asset, the region’s gaming sector is becoming a cultural one, too. In the case of This War of Mine, to remind people that war has a terrible, complex impact on civilians. It is far too soon to say if a video game will ever reach the renown of All Quiet on the Western Front or Dulce et Decorum Est, classics that will explain history's worst moments for generations. But if one ever does, it could well come from Eastern Europe.

[mightyflamethrower]

can news accounts of anti-Israel campus and street protestors. Read their demands and manifestos. Collate the confusion after October 7 from the Biden administration.

Here are ten of their most common untruths about October 7 and the war that followed.

“Progressive Hamas”: Gay and transgendered student protestors in America would be in mortal danger in Gaza under a fascistic Hamas that has banned homosexual acts and lifestyles. Anyone protesting publicly against Hamas or its allies would be arrested and severely punished.

Women are segregated in most Hamas-run educational institutions. Under the Hamas charter, women are valued mostly as child-bearers. By design, there are almost no women in high positions in business or in government under Hamas.

AD

“Colonists and Settlers”: Students scream that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists” and sometimes yell at Jewish students to “go back to Poland.”

But the Jewish presence in present-day Israel is deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Dating back at least three millennia, the concept of “Israel” as a distinct Jewish state, situated roughly in its current location, is ingrained in history.

By contrast, the much later Arab invasions of the Byzantine-controlled Levant and their arrival in Palestine occurred about 1800 years after the establishment of a Jewish Israel.

“Two-state Solution”: When student protestors scream “from the river to the sea,” that is not advocacy for a two-state solution. It is a call to eliminate the state of Israel—lying in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea—and its 10 million Jewish and Arab citizens. The Hamas charter is a one-state/no-Israel agenda, which we saw attempted on October 7.

AD

“Occupied Gaza” 

Gaza was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.

So on October 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas cancelled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians. Israel hosts two million Arabs, both as Israeli citizens and residents.

“Netanyahu is the Problem”

The U.S. and Europe claim that the conservative government of Benjamin Netanyahu is alone behind the Israeli tough response in Gaza. Thus, both the EU and the U.S. are doing their best to undermine or even overthrow the elected Netanyahu administration.

Yet, most Israelis support Netanyahu’s coalition government’s agenda of destroying Hamas in Gaza. There is no evidence that any other alternative Israeli government would do anything differently from the present policies toward Hamas.

“Targeting Civilians”

After murdering nearly 1,200 Israelis on October 7, Hamas scurried back to Gaza and hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques. Its preplanned strategy was to survive by ensuring Gaza civilians would be killed. Hamas has indiscriminately launched more than 7,000 rockets at Israel, all designed to kill Jewish civilians.

Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere, and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.

“Protestors Are Pro-Palestine”

Increasingly, protestors make no distinction between supporting “Palestine” and Hamas. Their chants often echo the original Hamas eliminationist charter and recent genocidal ravings of its leadership. Some protestors wear Hamas logos and wave its flag. Many cheered the Hamas massacre of October 7.

“Anti-Israel Is Not Anti-Semitic”

When protestors scream to Jewish students to “go back to Poland” or call for the “Final Solution,” or assault them or bar them from campus facilities, they do not ask whether they are pro-Israeli. For protestors, anyone identifiable as Jewish becomes a target of their anti-Semitic invective and violence.

“Genocide”

Israel has not tried to wipe out the Palestinian people in the fashion of Hamas’s one-state solution plan for Jews. Before October 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel—on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.

If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israeli Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the October 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.

According to Hamas’s questionable “genocide” figures, roughly 4 percent of the Gazan population died during the Israeli response to October 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.

“Disproportionate Response” 

Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three. Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the IDF responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn citizens.

Israel has been disproportionate only in the effectiveness of its response. Hamas and its Iranian benefactor intended disproportionately to hurt Israel but utterly failed.

So Israel proved to be competent, and Hamas incompetent in their similar efforts to use disproportionate force.

[beardedmrbean]

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The German government says it is cracking down on irregular migration and crime following recent extremist attacks, and plans to extend temporary border controls to all nine of its frontiers next week.

Last month, a deadly knife attack by a Syrian asylum-seeker in Soligen killed three people. The perpetrator claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group. In June, a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left a police officer dead and four other people wounded.

The border closures are set to last six months and are threatening to test European unity. Most of Germany’s neighbors are fellow members of the European Union, a 27-country bloc based on the principles of free trade and travel. And Germany — the EU’s economic motor in the heart of Europe — shares more borders with other countries than any other member state.

The Polish prime minister on Tuesday denounced the closures as “unacceptable” and Austria said it won’t accept migrants rejected by Germany.

Here’s a look at some of the issues:

How do Europeans travel currently?

The EU bloc has a visa-free travel area known as Schengen that allows citizens of most EU countries to travel easily across borders for work and pleasure. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland also belong to Schengen even though they are not EU members.

According to the EU, member states are allowed to temporarily reintroduce controls at the EU’s so-called internal borders in case of a serious threat, such as one to internal security. But it also says border controls should be applied as a last resort in exceptional situations, and must be time-limited.

Such limitations are often put in place during major sporting events, including the recent Olympic Games in Paris and the European soccer championship this summer.

What’s Germany doing now?

Nine countries border Germany and all are part of Schengen. Germany already imposed restrictions last year at its borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.

Germany’s Interior Ministry on Monday ordered the extension of checks at those borders, as well as controls at borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the aim was to limit irregular migration and protect the nation from “the acute dangers posed by Islamist terrorism and serious crime.”

Growing backlash against migration

The government and many Germans welcomed refugees fleeing conflicts in Syria and elsewhere from 2015-16, when more than 1 million asylum-seekers entered the country.

But as large-scale migration to Europe continues nearly a decade later, a backlash is fueling the growth of far-right parties.

Some people say social services are overwhelmed, and extremist attacks by asylum-seekers have led to security fears. It has added up to growing support for firmer immigration policies — and in some cases, backing for the far-right parties that champion such limits.

The unpopular coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is trying to crack down on irregular immigration after the far right did well in two recent state elections in eastern Germany. Another comes Sept. 22 in Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin.

Economic worries

As the EU’s largest economy, Germany is a key trading partner for neighbors. The interior ministry’s announcement has prompted economic worries for the main Dutch transportation lobby group, the Dutch Association for Transport and Logistics. It said the decision was undermining the Schengen principle of free trade and it fears major economic damage.

At home, Germany’s DSLV logistics and freight association urged a selective approach that would spare trucks moving goods across borders — which would mirror what occurred during the European soccer championships. Those checks avoided economic disruptions because officials focused on individuals and not trucks, the association said.

Dirk Jandura, the president of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services, said in an statement to The Associated Press that restrictions on the free movement of people “always mean delays and thus cost increases for the economy and especially for wholesale and foreign trade.”

He added: “However, if migration policy findings require restrictive measures, then this is understandable. For us, it is important to implement the measures with a sense of proportion.”

Political repercussions

The ruling conservative government in Austria — which is facing a tight race against the far-right party in an election this month — says it will not accept refugees who are turned back from Germany.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters that Germany has the right to send people back if another EU country is responsible for their asylum application. But that would require a formal procedure and the consent of the member state concerned.

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called Germany’s plan “unacceptable” and called for urgent consultations by all countries affected. Poland has struggled with a migration crisis on its border with Belarus since 2021. Warsaw accuses Belarus and Russia of luring migrants from the Middle East and Africa there to destabilize the West.

Agnieszka Łada-Konefał, deputy director of the German Institute of Polish Affairs, said random checks at the German-Polish border create traffic jams that make it more difficult for people to cross for work and discourage Germans from shopping in Poland. Poles also argue that Germany first introduced a policy of openness to refugees but is now pushing them back to Poland.

“Due to the negative perception of the influx of migrants in Poland, any report of migrants being returned by Germany also negatively affects Polish-German relations and Germany’s image in Poland,” Łada-Konefał told the AP.

But in the Netherlands, where the anti-immigration Party for Freedom won last year’s election, the minister for asylum and migration pledged to step up Dutch border controls as well.

Slovenia, Austria and Italy also have extended temporary border controls in some areas or all along their frontiers.

[head-post]

Migrant attacked 15-year-old Ukrainians with knife in Poland

A 26-year-old Uzbekistani man attacked two 15-year-old Ukrainian boys in the Brudno forest with a knife in his hand. A rescuer nicknamed Borkos was on the scene while walking with the children and gave the victims first aid, Wyborcza reports.

The attacker had come to the scene with a rucksack from a food delivery company, Polish media reported.

A rescuer was near the scene and provided first aid to the injured teenagers. Later the teenagers were taken to hospital. Several peers of the injured teenagers were also reportedly at the scene.

The young man who committed the crime dropped his keys and mobile phone while running away. Police detained him 500 metres from the scene.

According to reports, the teenagers received cuts and stab wounds on their hands, abdomen and chest area. The injuries of one of the teenagers are reported to be less serious. Warsaw police cannot yet disclose the current condition of the Ukrainian teenagers.

Ukrainian refugee children have been repeatedly subjected to abuse and violence in Europe. Recently, the media released information about the terrible living conditions of Ukrainian refugee children in a Spanish camp. Ukrainian children often become victims of human trafficking, according to media reports.

Read more HERE

[zvaigzdelasas]

[LRT is Lithuanian State Media]

When Radosław Sikorski last served as Polish Foreign Minister, the relations between Vilnius and Warsaw were marked with animosity, demands, and apologies. He is now returning to the post in the newly formed government of Donald Tusk. What does this mean for Polish-Lithuanian relations? [...]

In 2008, Sikorski compared the situation of Poles in Lithuania to that of the Polish minority in Belarus, where Lukashenko persecuted and imprisoned activists of the Polish Union. This caused an uproar in Lithuania, and it was suggested that Sikorski may have been offended by Lithuania’s failure to support his nomination as NATO Secretary General.[...]

But one of the most unpleasant episodes took place during the visit of Polish President Lech Kaczyński to Vilnius in 2010 when the Seimas rejected the government’s proposal to allow Polish surnames to be written in the original language. Sikorski and other Polish leaders accused Lithuania of failing to address the issues of the country’s Polish minority and limiting education in Polish schools. They complained about infrastructure projects, the treatment of Orlen investors at the Mažeikiai oil refinery, the ban on displaying signs with Polish street names, as well as the alleged disruption of the return of land to people of Polish descent.

At one point, Sikorski even said that Poland was considering economic sanctions against Lithuania, and Polish leaders threatened to “not set foot in Lithuania until the Polish issues in Lithuania are resolved”. The disputes were also noticed abroad. In 2012, The Economist wrote that the Polish-Lithuanian ties are “bafflingly bad and getting dangerously worse”. Both countries reportedly felt that the other side should apologise and make concessions, which was also worrying for the US, NATO, and the EU.[...]

Sikorski is a graduate of Oxford University, and his spouse is the world-renowned historian Anne Applebaum. Earlier, Sikorski worked as a reporter for British publications covering the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and later the conflict in Angola.[...]

Under PiS, Poland had close relations with Vilnius, while the Russian threat and the invasion of Ukraine made it necessary to put grievances aside.

19 Dec 23

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

War Anniversary Press Conference

As always

it's not 1:1

quotes are marked

I paraphrase and summarize

I could get things wrong because too fast or I don't hear the translator or ...

(First few minutes are missing because of issues with my internet.)

Like everyone else in society, Ze says, he changed too. Got tougher.

He tries to be as honest as possible when he talks / to everyone. But sometimes he can't talk about all the details.

Ze says very important new detail about France support is coming soon - but he wants Macron to announce it

Ze still hopes in Congress support because otherwise he can't understand in which world we live in in

he met with Congress members and they know all the details what they need and Ukraine hopes for a soon decision

there are security garanties for the money from the US

Ukraine must be supported today not till the end or the end will come soon

the Poland matter is an internal matter, a political power struggle

using Ukraine as a pressure on EU insitutions is not fair

it is important to mantain the alliance with Poland, Ze says

if they don't find a solution, Ukraine will protect it's business

Russian matter is strong / intense in several places

Ukraine has reduced their advantage but they still have advantage

Ukraine has to reach the point where they can conduct a CO, until that point they will still loose land

but it's more important to not loose (more) people

Ukraine needs to put pressure on the partner's on the already agreed packages so Ukraine gets stuff and can succeed against Russia

the US support is not about money, it's about weapons

Ukraine has the weapons they have and that's it - they need more weapons to continue

there are different types of weapons

if US doesn't deliver, sime weapons could be given to Ukraine from other countries but that's difficult because not all countries want to give their weapons

Europe is really shifting and changing to increase production (ammunition, artillery, defense), their attitude towards the war is changing and understanding that Russia / Putin / the war is also dangerous to them

they start to understand that Putin will continue is war

Ze says the problem is not the military sector not being ready, the problem is that the European socities are not ready for Putin to come to them and he hopes Putin will not come to them - hence why it's important for Ukraine to be strong and fight (and defeat Putin)

Ze says Ukraine lost about 31,000 soldiers in the war so far

Russia: 180,000 (total amount 500,000 - KIA, WIA)

they don't know for sure how many civilians have been killed by Russia because several places are still occupied and people have been deported

every partner believes that Ukraine will be in NATO in the future

US and Germany are the main ones who have a lot to do with the invitation to NATO

Ze sees no risks of Ukraine in NATO

Ze and Putin had an unofficial meeting during the Nomady meeting in December 2019

Ze explained Putin that the agreements would not work and it would not work how Putin imagined it, especially with the troops still present

they talked about the possible frozen conflict for 20 years

they also talked about the exchange

Ze doesn't remember all the details because it's so long ago, like from a different life

Taurus missiles are important

Ze is thankful for the strong German support / support from the Chancellor

the US still stands above Germany and Ze sees the problem in the US not in Germany

but Ze is optimistic that US will move their position and they will get results / what they need

Ukraine speaks about jets with partners and that's all he wants to say

if partners continue their support depends on a lot of things: diplomatic contact, upcoming election results, society, ...

Russia will try everything to underminde the support

Ukraine improving the production in droes

everything is about making Putin a poorer person because that's what Putin cares a lot about

if the frozen Russian money is transferred to Ukraine it will weaken Putin, Ze thinks

big oligarchs and big businesses will not be happy (Russian ones)

if Putin gets poorer (like with transfering the money) he will start calling everyone not just Ze to stop the war

Ze knows that Canada supports Ukraine

the new document with Canada will support and strength Ukraine until they're in NATO

Ukraine would be happy if Aserbaidschan would support Ukraine and Ze thinkgs they would because they support the sovereignty of Ukraine

Ukraine is working on the countries who don't support Ukraine to join them

Ze thinks this is not the weakest moment

February 24 was a shocking moment

the most difficult period was that the world started to forget that the war is still going on, not only because of the Middle East

neverthelss they feel the effect with less weapons

the first year was all about survival, the second about resilience

third year will be a difficult year (elections, fatigue, ...), full of challenges, it's a turning year

this year will define the format of the ending of this war

Ze doesn't understand why they spilt the grain - he understands it's about politics but still doesn't understand it

it's bad that Poland's actions (the spilled grain) is playing into Russian Propaganda and that shouldn't be

it's not happening on Ukraine territory so Poland has to / can stop it, not Ukraine

Ze is not telling the Polish gouvernemnt what to do, that's not his right, but in regards of relations it's not right what the people do at the border

the longer this war goes the bigger will be the casualities (civilian, military)

losing time means losing money which is frustrating

the longer the war the longer the horrors for the people

the longer the war the longer it's hard for the countries who support

Ukraine can not loose time

(Huge part is missing because the livestream was having massive problems and made it impossible to follow.)

there has been evidence that Russia is using artillery and missiles from North Korea

there is nothing Ukraine can do besides help Ukraine

North Korea will continue to give weapons to Russia

Ukraine is not negotiating with partners on the use of their armys on Ukraine territory

strongest security guaranty would be Ukrain ein NATO

Ukraine will have a difficult time in the next few months because of the US

EU has shown their ability of leadership and support

Russia will prepare their CO at the beginning of summer / April if they can

Ukraine will be prepared for Russia

Ukraine will prepare their own planes

the US elections will show Ukraine what it will be after that

Ukraine prepares the first Peace Summit ad prepares the document about a just peace and the end of th war for Ukraine and everyone

what the end of the year looks like depends on a lot of factors

END

[dzthenerd490]

News Post

Palestine

Israeli army strapped wounded Palestinian to jeep (bbc.com)

Gaza emergency health chief killed in Israeli air attack | Israel-Palestine conflict | Al Jazeera

Armenia recognizes Palestinian statehood; Israel summons ambassador for reprimand | The Times of Israel

East Palestine, Ohio: NTSB to release final derailment report (thehill.com)

Edan On: LA County declines to charge man recorded attacking pro-Palestine protesters at UCLA, refers case to city attorney’s office | CNN

Ukraine

Ukraine war: Russia blames US and vows response for Crimea deaths (bbc.com)

Leader of NATO member Poland visits China, expecting to talk to Xi about Ukraine | AP News

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskiy hails ‘historic step’ as EU set to open Ukraine accession talks | Ukraine | The Guardian

EU devises legal loophole to bypass Hungary veto on support for Ukraine (ft.com)

Ukraine Isn’t Anywhere Close To Running Out Of T-64 Tanks (forbes.com)

Sudan

African Union calls for extraordinary summit on Sudan war - Dailynewsegypt

UK ‘tried to suppress criticism’ of alleged UAE role in arming Sudan’s RSF militia | Global development | The Guardian

KSrelief continues humanitarian activities in Lebanon, Sudan (arabnews.com)

From Gaza to Sudan, Number of Global Armed Conflicts Reach New Post-WWII High | Democracy Now!

[lepartidelamort]

Poland: High Court Judge Defects to Belarus, Claims US Planning to Turn Poland Into a War Zone

Andrew Anglin

The Americans get ideas in their heads, abstract concepts, and then preach them as some kind universal law.

Yes, Sunnis do tend to hate Shiites. Yes, Poles do tend to hate Russians. In both cases, there are serious histories that involve a lot of war.

But does that actually mean that there is no limit? That it can just be assumed that Sunnis or Poles will agree to have their countries completely destroyed in the name of this hatred?

Presumably, there are things that the Poles care about more than the hatred of Russia. Probably, most of them are more against gays than they are against Russians, for example. They also probably don’t want to have their entire country destroyed, like the Ukraine, in the name of hatred for Russia.

In actual reality, the Poles surrendered to Russia, knowing that Stalin would take their whole country, because they didn’t want to fight a war that they couldn’t possibly win against the Red Army. So, that sort of disproves the American theory in a pretty extreme way.

Basically every country in history surrendered if it was clear they were going to be annihilated. The only country that didn’t do this is the Ukraine. The Americans apparently think they can do this trick again in Poland.

Politico:

A high-level Polish judge asked for political asylum in Belarus on Monday, saying he was doing so in “protest against Poland’s unjust and harmful policy” toward Belarus and Russia. In his resignation letter published on X, Tomasz Szmydt said he was giving up his position as a judge at the Warsaw Administrative Court “with immediate effect.” Szmydt described his decision as a protest against “activities to push my country to a direct military conflict” with Belarus and Russia, and appealed to the Polish authorities to “normalize” and establish “good neighborly relations” with Minsk and Moscow.

Tomasz Szmydt at the press conference in Belarus

The judge also appeared at a press conference in Minsk, one of Russia’s few allies in its war against Ukraine, praising the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko for running a “blooming country.” He argued that the authorities in Warsaw, under the influence of the United States and the United Kingdom, are “leading the country to war.” His flight to Minsk was denounced in Warsaw. “Whoever is fleeing Poland to Belarus to slander Poland and the NATO community of which we are a part is a scoundrel and traitor,” Stanisław Żaryn, an aide to President Andrzej Duda, told reporters in Warsaw. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said: “It’s shocking information that I’m finding hard to comment on.” … It’s not Szmydt’s first brush with fame. Polish news website Onet reported in 2019 that Szmydt belonged to an informal group that discussed how to discredit judges who didn’t pledge loyalty to the former nationalist Law and Justice party government. He later switched sides and went public in 2022 to expose what he said was unethical behavior by pro-government judges.

Poland could flip rapidly.

They are being completely Ukrainized, which is their most pressing problem. There are cities in southern Poland which are now a majority Ukrainian. Hilariously, at least half of these people speak Russian as a first language. Because they are actually Russian people, because the Ukraine is not a real country.

The West has installed Donald Tusk as Prime Minister. This guy is a total product of the EU, and doesn’t really share any common values with Poles. He’s from a minority ethnic group and has a German grandmother. He’s a prime example of the worthless, rootless technocrat that always serves American/Globalist/Jewish interests.

It’s unclear what America’s plan for the Ukraine actually is. The original plan was to crush the Russian economy and force a color revolution, but that has been off the table for two years. The Ukraine has already lost the war. If they keep pushing, Poland will end up under Russian control.

Who knows what this judge knows. Maybe he’s just reading the internet. He was a pretty high ranking official though, and he is saying that the Polish government is working with the Americans to escalate in a way that is going to involve Poland directly in the war.