In Poland, compassion for Ukrainians has turned to contempt. The consequences could be dramatic | Mateusz Mazzini
Warsaw failed to anticipate that refugees would build new lives and Kyiv would demand an equal place at the European tableOne of the unintended consequences of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine was that it gave Poland a rare slice of geopolitical stardom. When Russian tanks started their ultimately unsuccessful cavalcade towards the Ukrainian capital, ordinary Poles rushed to help millions of people fleeing the looming conflict. As Polish people opened their doors to civilians running from Russian bombs, even the then ruling populist Law and Justice party had to follow suit.It seemed that Poland and Ukraine were bound for an iron-clad alliance, unprecedented in their shared history. Poland advocated for the Ukrainian cause in the west, with some success. Ukrainian leaders, in turn, praised Poles for their generosity and the government in Warsaw for contributing weapons and money to the war effort. Given that recent history between the two countries had been marked by accusations of second world war-era genocide, border shifts and postwar displacements of millions of people, it was a remarkable change.Mateusz Mazzini is a Warsaw-based journalist writing on global affairs for Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza and Polityka Continue reading...
Ukraine war briefing: Small batch of Patriots arrives as Zelenskyy pleads for more
President won’t name supplier and has previously said he ‘does some things I can’t even share’ to obtain vital air defence missiles. What we know on day 1,644Ukraine has recently received a small number of US-made Patriot interceptors capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He did not say how many had arrived, or who had supplied them. Kyiv also got confirmation of future supplies of the French Crotale surface-to-air missile system, the president was quoted as saying by broadcaster Suspilne. Zelenskyy said this month that Ukraine needs 5% of US Patriot production to meet its needs but has only been receiving 1%. “From 1% to 5%, I have some months and millions [of] phone calls and anything else. I do some things which I can’t even share. It doesn’t mean that it’s out of the law. But I can’t speak about it.”Russia is set to extend its diesel export ban through September as fuel shortages persist in the domestic market, with refineries still idle following repeated Ukrainian drone attacks, three industry sources told Reuters. Russia introduced the diesel export ban on 8 July. One of the sources said extending the ban until the end of the year is also under discussion. Russia’s energy ministry did not respond to a Reuters request to comment.For non-diesel fuels the ban extends to 31 January next year, including a ban for export of motor gasoline. Export of jet fuel is banned, for the moment, until the end of November 2026. To make matters worse for the Kremlin, Ukraine’s military struck Russia’s Afipsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region overnight on Tuesday, causing a fire, the Ukrainian general staff said. The general staff also said that two gas separation units at the Astrakhan gas processing plant in the Astrakhan region were hit in an attack overnight on Monday.Bradley Townsend, a 33-year-old fisher from Barnsley, South Yorkshire is believed to be the first British citizen to die fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine, writes Raphael Boyd. He is believed to have been killed by a remote-controlled first-person-view drone near Lyman, a city in Donetsk, as long ago as 10 June. Tom Tugendhat, the former Conservative MP and security minister and ex-serviceman, expressed sympathies to thee family but added Townsend had been “unbelievably stupid” and “extremely misguided”. “No question about it, it’s criminal because you’re engaging in an army that is committing the most barbarous war crimes that the world has seen in decades.”German investigators found a third drone and suspected military explosives thought to be connected to an attempted attack on Leipzig airport, local media reported. The drone was discovered in Kabelsketal, just to the west of the airport, along with about 50g (1.8oz) of a suspected military explosive on 14 August, 10 days after the unsuccessful sabotage, Kate Connolly reports. Leipzig airport is a cargo and military logistics hub used by Nato and Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines for transporting military supplies.Sweden’s military meanwhile is moving to seize Russian-owned land near the Musko naval base in Stockholm’s archipelago. “The development of Russian drone warfare has changed the threat landscape for Sweden,” the armed forces said. “There is therefore a need to take measures to protect Sweden against the threat posed by both aerial and sea-going drones.”Ukraine appears to be slowly losing the war against Russia, its ousted defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, has told Reuters. Ukraine’s presidential office said in response that Fedorov had been positive about the conduct of the war when in office and the only thing that had changed was his personal status. Fedorov said Ukraine still had “every chance” to win but urgently needed a plan in the next few months to end the war. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the weekend that Fedorov’s spending decisions had left a $27bn hole in the defence ministry budget and no way to fill it. Fedorov has denied the figure. Continue reading...
