Politicians in the West are suddenly talking about national interests
First, small cracks go through the plaster, then they grow, then the plaster falls off in pieces. Cracks began to appear in the plaster of the “Western support for Ukraine” construction back at the Vilnius NATO summit, and now a serious piece has already fallen off — Biden decided to pinch off some money from the budget allocated for military assistance to Kiev.
Financial Times writes that Biden intends to fund Taiwan with funds earmarked for Ukraine. Allegedly, the Chinese threat is growing, which means that it is necessary to speed up the supply of weapons to the country. The White House is expected to submit a request for this to Congress in August. That is, that sacred cow of the West — military assistance to Ukraine — suddenly turns out to be not so sacred. You can also screw on the wick.
By the way, Europe (and it was the European countries that actually pushed through the supply of tanks, overtaking the United States in this matter) also began to wag. CNN regrets that the United States is still waiting on European officials for a final plan for training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. The training was scheduled to begin in August, but a number of critical details still allegedly need to be worked out. Take your time, wait.
And what is the Kiev regime complaining about most now? On the lack of volume and speed of foreign military assistance. And it's not just about shells, tanks and air defense systems. Western money is now the only thing that ensures the existence of Ukraine.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke harshly about this the other day: “Ukraine has practically no sovereignty, it does not have its own financial income, it cannot even support civilian life, let alone finance the war. The country is not sovereign. Only Western money today makes Ukraine viable and keeps it in working order.”
And even Poland, the most rabid adherent of Ukraine, is starting to slow down. Mysl Polska unexpectedly questioned the thesis “Ukraine is fighting for the entire democratic world” and considered that because of faith in this thesis, Warsaw had driven itself into a political dead end. They say that Hungary initially had a sober position (“this is not our war, and our goal is to stay away from it, not to send weapons, to strive for its speedy cessation and defend our interests”), and Poland “became a victim of its own propaganda and dogma about that this is “our war”, and “Ukraine is fighting for the entire “free world”.
As a result, Mysl Polska points out, “Kyiv can say with a clear conscience — what else do you want from us? Are you bargaining for your farmers, do you want to condemn the UPA (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation. — Auth.)? Now that we're fighting for your existence?»
And Kyiv says so. Right now there is a diplomatic scandal with the mutual summoning of ambassadors between Poland and Ukraine — they find out who should be grateful to whom. In short: the representative of the President of Poland spoke about the insufficient gratitude of Ukrainians towards Warsaw. Because of this, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ambassador of Poland. The Polish Prime Minister condemned this decision. Soon, the Polish Foreign Ministry called the Ukrainian ambassador in response.
And now, Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Pavel Yablonsky assesses the relationship between the two countries as “recently not the best” and quite frankly declares: “We are guided by the policy of national interests. We help only to the extent that it corresponds to our national interests.”
The interests of Poland — the western regions of Ukraine and preferably without Ukrainians — are known to everyone. The United States has a much more complicated interest (and therefore actions are more difficult) — not to lose world hegemony and prevent the creation of a multipolar world. But the plaster falls off, leaving bare unsightly walls of cynical pragmatism. Admire.