Although the leaders of Western countries understand that the root cause of the missile crash in Poland is Russia’s war of aggression, blaming Ukraine can fuel anti-Ukraine rhetoric in the West, writes Maxim Fedorov, ‘s Kyiv reporter.
KIEV The missiles that fell on Polish soil originated from a Ukrainian anti-aircraft system. This is at least the opinion of NATO and the United States.
According to the Polish leadership, there is no evidence that the missiles that hit the village of Przewodów were launched by Russia.
Still, the president of Ukraine stands by his claim that it was a Russian rocket.
– In their reports, everyone from the chiefs of the air force to the commander of the armed forces have assured that it was neither our missile nor our strike. I have no reason not to trust them, Volodymyr Zelenskyi told Ukrainian journalists on Wednesday.
Such a contradiction between the positions of the West and Ukraine is hardly expedient, but Ukraine is not going to go back on its words for the time being.
There can be at least two reasons for this.
First of all, in this way, Zelenskyi wants to ensure that Ukrainian experts are allowed to participate in the investigation of the case.
The president of Ukraine expressed his readiness to apologize to Poland if the missiles are found to be Ukrainian. But first he wants to see the evidence, which he says Ukraine has not yet received.
Another reason is thatthat Ukraine does not want to be seen as the bad guy in any context.
It seeks to maintain an unambiguous setup where Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the defender. Ukraine calculates that the arrangement will ensure help from the West.
For the same reason, Ukraine was also outraged by the human rights organization in August Report to Amnesty International (you will go to another service)in which the organization accused the Ukrainian army of endangering the lives of civilians.
Western leaders understand that the root cause of the Polish missile crash and other negative events is Russia’s attack and not Ukraine’s defensive actions. They say it out loud too.
But there are many parties in the West who do not support Ukraine – or do not support it under any conditions.
For example, the former president of the United States Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr has implied that after the missile crash in Poland, arms aid to Ukraine should be stopped.
– If it was once a Ukrainian missile, couldn’t we stop arming Ukraine with billions of dollars already, Trump Jr. asked on Twitter.
Ukraine does not want to feed such rhetoric, even by accident.
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The most important events from the Russian war of aggression