After a Russian missile entered Polish airspace for 39 seconds on its way towards western Ukraine, Ukrainian politicians are complaining that Poland did not shoot the missile down.
Krzysztof Bosak, joint leader of the right-wing Confederation party, expressed his displeasure with Andriy Sadovy’s remarks on Polish commercial TV Polsat, in which the Ukrainian politician said that it would have been good for the Russian missile to have been shot down over Poland, as that would have made the Ukrainians’ job a little bit easier.
“As for inviting us to shoot down Russian missiles, if I were in the shoes of Ukrainian politicians, I would also want Polish fighters to fly over Ukraine and for Poland to join the war. The problem is that it’s not in our interest,” said Bosak.
The Polish politician added that it was in Poland’s interests for the war not to spread beyond the borders of Ukraine. He acknowledged that it would be optimal if Russia was defeated and Ukraine remained an independent state, but the overriding Polish interest was not to become embroiled in the conflict.
Bosak also said that the mayor of Lviv, instead of advising Poles what to do, might take care to apologize for the fact that he has honored the perpetrators of the World War II Volhynia massacre and has backed out of efforts to commemorate the victims.
The Confederation leader did not think that Poland should remove the Russian ambassador from Warsaw, as that would be tantamount to the breakdown of all diplomatic relations with Russia. He did not think Poland should act in a more radical manner than other NATO states which maintain relations with Russia.
“Expulsion means breaking off diplomatic relations,” explained the Confederation party leader, noting that diplomatic relations are also maintained by countries at war, and Poland “thankfully is not at war at the moment.”
Earlier on Monday, Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev snubbed the Polish Foreign Ministry by refusing to attend a meeting with a deputy foreign minister. The press spokesman of the ministry reacted by telling reporters that Poland would deliver a diplomatic note protesting the breach of its airspace by a Russian rocket over the weekend and reminded Russia’s ambassador about his duties in accordance with the Vienna Convention. Andreev also stated that his refusal to attend a meeting with Polish officials placed a question mark over his continued mission in Poland.
Andreev responded by telling Russian news agency TASS that he refused to go to the ministry, as no hard evidence had been produced of the breach of airspace, and therefore he did not see any point in discussing the matter. He added that Poland was free to communicate on this matter and that if any evidence is substantiated by the Polish side, then Russia will consider whether and how it should reply.
