President of France Emmanuel Macron spoke with Vladimir Putin for probably the tenth time since the beginning of the war, and as always, he did not accomplish anything other than assuring the Russia’s leader that Paris cannot psychically handle a violent confrontation, that the country exists as a weak point in Europe when it comes to confronting Russia.
According to the official statement, “the presidents of France and Russia, Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin, did not come to an agreement on the matter of the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, during a telephone call on Tuesday.”
They also did not agree on “the matter of payments for Russian gas in rubles.”
The latter is more than symbolic: while Russian rockets were falling on Ukrainian cities and villages, when Russians were busy reducing Mariupol to rubble — which now resembles 1944 Warsaw after the World War II uprising against the Germans — Macron debated on possible ways of paying for Russian gas.
This is something more than Monachium, it is some kind of a horrendous love-story with the man, who was appropriately described as a “butcher” by the U.S. president Joe Biden. It is, in fact, sending aid not to the victim, but to the aggressor. This asymmetry is downright shocking. On one hand, Macron is fawning all over a war criminal, and on the other, Macron displays insensitivity, maybe even irritation that the whole business is taking so long, towards the Ukrainians who are fighting heroically.
We must draw conclusions from the situation. Neither France nor Germany would offer us security against an actual threat from the East. There is no reason to believe that those two countries would treat us any differently than they treat Ukraine today. None. In case of an attack on Warsaw, they would act in the same manner, holding discussions with Russia the first chance they get, and delaying all sanctions or aid that could support the defender.
In this light, every step towards the European integration —in fact, often centralization carried out by Berlin — needs to be thought out thoroughly. Every competency given to Brussels will mean a weaker Poland in the time of a true crisis. We will not be the ones who decide. And those who will, would rather grab their phone and call Putin then come to our aid.
