Poland, in Russia’s shadow, nervous as war in Ukraine intensifies

Justina Dziwicka was not but born when Poland shed the shackles of the Soviet Union and joined NATO, the U.S.-led Western alliance that may defend the Jap European nation. However the child-care employee is getting a swift lesson on what a Moscow-generated battle appears to be like like.

“I really feel that the battle got here to my nation,” she stated. “And I really feel horrible.”

Dziwicka stood on a avenue nook right here in central Warsaw, the Polish capital, ready to cross a busy boulevard. On one aspect of the road was the primary prepare station, the place on her commute to work, Dziwicka sees more and more giant numbers of refugees fill the corridors and spill into out of doors tents.

On the opposite aspect of the road was the resort the place Secret Service brokers had been making ready for Vice President Kamala Harris’ arrival later Wednesday.

Harris is spending Thursday in Poland after which persevering with to Romania on Friday, in search of to reassure the deeply nervous former East Bloc international locations that with their membership in NATO — and backing from Washington — they continue to be secure.

The 2 international locations additionally need assist in shouldering the burden of sheltering most of the greater than 2.1 million refugees who’ve fled the ferocious Russian onslaught in Ukraine. It’s the fastest-growing exodus in Europe since World Conflict II.

At 22, Dziwicka has by no means recognized a time when her nation was aligned with Russia. Poland on Saturday will have fun the twenty third anniversary of the day it joined the North Atlantic Treaty Group.

Nonetheless, there’s a way of vulnerability and worry that’s extra pronounced in Poland and Romania — in addition to the three Baltic states northeast of Poland — than in older NATO member international locations, given each their historical past of Soviet domination and their location. Poland sees itself as soon as once more within the crosshairs of a superpower wrestle with probably catastrophic outcomes.

“We’ve one loopy man … and he sits within the bunkers,” stated Max Mrozowski, a 39-year-old entrepreneur on a smoking break, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He’s killing folks, slaughtering youngsters in Ukraine.”

“So it might additionally come right here,” he stated. “You by no means know. He would possibly discover any form of cause to start out it.”

Mrozowski sounds stoic however is holding shut tabs. He is aware of Poland’s NATO anniversary is close to. He thinks about Hitler and World Conflict II and attracts worrisome comparisons. Requested concerning the concept of his nation sending fighter jets to Ukraine, he cites Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s requires extra assist from the West however then factors out the potential for giving Putin pretext for extra aggression.

“It’s a matter of us serving to the Ukrainians as a result of now we’re simply preventing for our understanding of freedom and our understanding of human rights and present civilization,” he stated. “So that is the entire thing.”

“We’ve one loopy man … and he sits within the bunkers,” stated Polish entrepreneur Max Mrozowski, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He’s killing folks, slaughtering youngsters in Ukraine.”

(Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Occasions)

The Harris mission grew to become difficult on the final minute when Polish officers — stunning their U.S. counterparts — introduced that somewhat than ship Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine, as Ukraine has sought, they had been sending the plane to the U.S. Air Power base at Ramstein, Germany.

This was Poland’s means of extricating itself from a transaction that risked inviting Putin’s wrath. But it surely turned what had been cautious U.S. negotiations on their head and left American officers struggling to make sense of it.

Whereas calling the Polish choice to have the U.S. ship the planes to Ukraine “untenable,” Biden administration officers additionally sought to downplay the apparent wrinkle in much-vaunted NATO unity.

The Pentagon then introduced it had positioned two Patriot antimissile batteries in Poland as what an official referred to as a “purely proactive” measure to guard NATO’s japanese flank from Russian air assault — one other signal of deep worries about Moscow’s aggression.

“The Poles are nervous, in fact they’re nervous,” Daniel Fried, a veteran diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to Poland now on the Atlantic Council suppose tank in Washington, stated in an interview. “They’ve the Russian military destroying their neighbor … and making nuclear threats. [Putin] hates the Poles, not fairly as a lot as he hates the Ukrainians.”

This presents Harris with a formidable problem, Fried stated. “She should hearken to the Poles,” he stated, to their concrete issues and fears. And she or he should clarify the longer-term U.S. posture towards Russia and elaborate not what the U.S. can not do for Ukraine — like ship fighter jets — however what it could actually do.

“She is aware of that is messy,” Fried stated. “She’s going to have a helluva time.”

Poland’s tumultuous historical past — simply within the final century — took it from a Nazi occupation within the Nineteen Thirties and ‘40s that bore witness to a few of the deadliest slaughters of Jews, to the ranks of one of many largest financial powers inside the Soviet sphere, to the forefront of the anti-communist motion beneath the auspices of labor chief Lech Walesa — with essential help from then-Pope John Paul II, a Pole. Extra not too long ago, a once-flourishing democracy has taken a regressive flip towards judicial and press freedoms beneath President Andrzej Duda, an admirer of former President Trump, a fellow right-wing populist.

Warsaw’s fashionable glass skyscrapers share a skyline with the Stalinist Palace of Tradition and Science over low-rise Soviet-era condo buildings, a mixture of structure reflecting many years of change. Youthful folks with brightly dyed hair and trendy footwear eat from stylish cafes that serve conventional pierogis together with espresso and truffles.

However one other chapter unfolds now on the prepare station.

Refugees from Ukraine who spilled into the tents outdoors the station carried suitcases or pulled pet canine on leashes, having left behind residences and family members, not figuring out the place they might wind up. Volunteers handed out water and sandwiches and processing paperwork; a truck offered free web entry.

Mamoud Krgbo, who was born in Sierra Leone and met his spouse in Ukraine, stood together with her and their 4-year-old daughter, attempting to hail a cab to the airport. They’d aircraft tickets to Eire — a rustic they selected in a rush — however didn’t know whether or not they can be allowed in.

He had little hope that Harris or every other politician would be capable to give Ukraine the assistance it wants.

“It’s a disappointment,” he stated. “They’re simply speaking.”

Wilkinson reported from Washington.