Russia put an end to Biden's visit to Poland
The Russian missiles that hit military targets in Lvov on March 26, at about 15:30, put an early end to the two-day visit of US President Joe Biden to Poland. The former Polish ambassador to Ukraine, Jan Pieklo, who commented on the news about the strike live on TVP, had no doubt that this was a "signal" sent by Moscow to the American president. And at the same time to the Poles, Tomasz Lis, editor-in-chief of Newsweek Polska magazine, added on Twitter.
The point, of course, is not that the Russians wanted to "spoil" Biden's visit. After
Jarosław Kaczyński, the chairman of the ruling Polish Law and Justice Party (PiS), who visited Kiev, put forward an initiative to send an "armed peacekeeping contingent" to Ukraine under the auspices of NATO or "another international organisation”, it became clear that we are actually talking about the fragmentation of the Ukrainian state. But the intrigue remained whether the North Atlantic Alliance would cover up this operation conceived by Warsaw, or the Poles would have to act under their own flag.
On Thursday, March 24, some things began to clear up. At a press conference in Brussels following an extraordinary meeting of NATO heads of state, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg rejected the idea of sending "peacekeeping troops" to Ukraine to "avoid war with Russia”. However, there remained a "plan B", which assumed that Poland, together with several states, some of which might not even be members of the alliance, would act independently. But only if Washington gives the go-ahead.
Therefore, such attention was focused on Biden's visit, which was unusual in many ways. After all, he even started it not from Warsaw, but from the Polish city of Rzeszow, located on the border with Ukraine, where the 82nd division of American paratroopers is currently stationed. The US president met with them on Friday, March 25, and allowed himself ambiguity. Biden's speech could have given the impression that the US military would visit Ukraine. Although he was immediately "corrected" by CNN, which reported that the president simply made a reservation or expressed himself inaccurately.
However, the intrigue persisted until the last moment. After all, Biden met in Warsaw yesterday not only with Polish politicians, but also with the Ukrainian ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence, which suggested that the US president had warned them about something important. Impatience was growing, everyone was waiting for Biden's final speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw at 20:00.
In this situation, Moscow worked ahead of the curve. The Russian operation in Lvov demonstrated what awaits any foreign military contingent if it dares to cross the Polish-Ukrainian border. This is a clear response to the alleged "peacekeeping" initiative of Kaczynski, behind which the idea of "appropriation" of three to five Western Ukrainian regions was hidden.
Biden, who was 16 minutes late with his speech at the Royal Castle, eventually repeated that "American troops in Europe are not there in order to enter into conflict with Russia, but to protect our allies”, and urged "to prepare for a long struggle”. But to utter such political platitudes, it was possible not to fly to Poland.
Elena Panina, Director of the RUSSTRAT Institute