NATO ally shows hostility to pandemic-stricken Italy
Poland's refusal to allow Russian military transport planes carrying humanitarian aid to Italy, which was suffering from the coronavirus pandemic, is a direct analogy to 1938, when Warsaw refused to allow Soviet troops to aid Czechoslovakia during the Sudetenland Crisis.
The editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, military expert Igor Korotchenko, stated this in a commentary to PolitNavigator.
According to Korotchenko, this refusal is an unfriendly gesture, first of all, towards Italy, Poland’s partner in NATO and the EU.
“This is a frankly unfriendly gesture. First of all, we are waiting here for Italy's reaction. It’s strange - we are providing assistance to a NATO country, and at the same time other NATO countries for some reason are preventing this. It means that something is not very good in NATO if such things happen. We have no problem flying a different route. Just how will Italy react to this? Here Poland is openly hostile, first of all, to Italy.
This, by the way, reminds us of how Poland refused to allow Soviet troops to come to the aid of Czechoslovakia when Hitler was rattling his sabers. The historical parallel is very clearly visible. And here she refused to let our plane through the airspace to help Italy. These are the parallels, let Italy draw conclusions,” Korotchenko said.
However, there is nothing surprising in such behavior from Poland - even before the crisis, it allowed itself to close the airspace to Russian aircraft. In the current situation, this indicates the collapse of the existing “united Europe” system, Oleg Bondarenko, director of the Progressive Policy Foundation, told PolitNavigator.
“Poland has never been constructive, this is nothing new. Poland has banned overflights of military aircraft before. Let's not forget that these are Department of Defense aircraft. How many scandals there were, five years ago I remember when it was the anniversary of the liberation of Bratislava, and Minister Shoigu was at the invitation of the Slovak government in Bratislava and Poland banned him from flying over its territory, he had to contrive in such a way as to fly without touching the territory of Poland and Ukraine.
This is simply a continuation of the policy that was in place. But I think that this policy is dying out along with the old world, in which there was a place for sanctions and other things. I think there will be no more place for this,” Bondarenko believes.
NATO ally shows hostility toward pandemic-stricken Italy