Polish PM Donald Tusk warns that "literally any scenario is possible" and that Europe entered the pre-war era when Russia invaded Ukraine
Polish PM Donald Tusk warns that "literally any scenario is possible" and that Europe entered the pre-war era when Russia invaded Ukraine
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that "literally any scenario is possible" and that Europe entered the pre-war era when Russia invaded Ukraine.
"War is no longer a concept from the past. It is real, and it started over two years ago. The most worrying thing at the moment is that literally any scenario is possible. We haven't seen a situation like this since 1945," Tusk said in an interview with the European media grouping LENA on Friday.
"I know it sounds devastating, especially for the younger generation, but we have to get used to the fact that a new era has begun: the pre-war era. I'm not exaggerating; it's becoming clearer every day."
The former European Council president's comments came soon after the two-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war upended an era of peace in Europe and pushed nations into ramping up weapons production.
Tusk further said that no one in Europe would feel safe if Kyiv lost the war.
The comparison to the pre-war stage of ww2 is an obvious one to make. The aggressor is invading and Europe is acting like they're not at war, again.
The aggressor is invading and Europe is acting like they’re not at war, again.
The Phoney War wasn't so much countries pretending that they weren't at war as it was countries preparing for war. The Axis had started arming themselves sooner; the Allies wanted to have enough time to build up.
Instead, Europe initially leaned in to becoming more dependent on the aggressor for natural gas.
If only there were some way we could make sure Ukraine is able to make the invaders fuck off.
Oh well. Best continue delivering tiny amounts of outdated hardware with great delay.
Europe has donated around ~$150 billion USD (including from member states). That's almost an entire year's EU budget, over 20x the ESA's annual budget (wtf), and over 20x the EU's 6-year contribution to ITER (double wtf).
The money comes from somewhere and Europe is broke.
The US needs to stop shirking their duty, and send the military in. They are making an absolute fortune off LNG and weapons exports, they should take the responsibility to help.
EDIT: Also rich for Poland to complain about this when they are the biggest leech of EU funds in the Union. It's absurd that there are only ~9 net contributors to begin with.
Europe isn't broke, the rich countries are stingy. 150 billion is not much for an economy of 19 trillion - in fact it's not even 1%
Money is nice, it enables Ukraine to keep paying its public servants, but what they really need is modern military hardware, and lots of it. Europe alone has enough if they just delivered it. The USA with their absolutely massive military not helping at the moment is a prolem too, obviously, but we Europeans can no longer rely on them, as they're apparently insane enough to elect someone like Trump, who said many times he doesn't give a shit.
I wouldn't say Europe is broke but the rather abrupt switch away from Russian fossils has certainly left the entire block with less financial resources.
That’s almost an entire year’s EU budget
Not to detract from the numbers but the EU budget is tiny, all things considered. For comparison: France and Germany have state budgets of ~1.5 trillion each. The EU doesn't have a military, very limited police forces (mostly just FRONTEX), it doesn't run welfare and health systems and the only pensions it pays out are to its own civil servants. A good 130 billion are cohesion funds and agricultural/environmental subsidies, the rest has to get by on 20bn. Which is higher than, but in the same ballpark of, Hamburg's state budget. Probably lower actually if you include all the brick+mortar and shipping stuff Hamburg owns their turnover doesn't count towards the state budget.
You dont understand money system tbh
As former Polish president, Lech Kaczyński, said in 2008:
And we also know very well that today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic States, and then maybe it's time for my country, Poland!
full text of his speech
Ladies and Gentlemen!
We are here to express total solidarity. We are here the leaders of five countries: Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We are here to take up the fight. For the first time in a long time, our neighbors from the north, and for us also from the north and the east, showed the face we have known for hundreds of years.
These neighbors believe that the nations around them should be subject to them. We say no! This country is Russia. This country believes that the old days of the empire that fell less than 20 years ago are coming back. That domination will again be a feature of this region. Well, it won't be. These times are over once and for all. Not for twenty, thirty or fifty years!
We all experienced this dominance at the same time, or in slightly different periods. This is a disaster for all of Europe. It is breaking human characters, it is imposing a foreign system, it is imposing a foreign language. But how is the situation different today from that of many years ago? Today we are here together. Today the world had to react, even if it was reluctant to do so. And we are here to make this world react even more strongly. In particular the European Union and NATO.
When I initiated this visit, some people thought that the presidents would be afraid. Nobody was afraid. Everyone came because Central Europe has brave leaders. And I would like to say it not only to you, I would also like to say it to those from our common European Union, that Central Europe, Georgia, that our entire region will count, that we are an entity. And we also know very well that today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic States, and then maybe it's time for my country, Poland!
We were deeply convinced that membership in NATO and the EU would end the period of Russian appetites. It turned out that it was not, that it was a mistake. But we can oppose it if the values on which Europe is supposed to be based have any practical significance. If they are to matter, we must be here, all of Europe must be here. There are four NATO countries here. There is Ukraine, a great country.
There is President Sarkozy, currently the President of the European Council, but there should be 27 of them here. We believe that Europe will understand your right to freedom and will also understand its interests. He will understand that without Georgia, Russia will restore its empire, and this is not in anyone's interest.
That's why we are here!
He was right in this one, but still a scumbag
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that there was a "real" threat of conflict in Europe and that the continent has entered a "pre-war era" for the first time since World War II.
World War II ended in 1945 with the surrender of Hitler's Germany and the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The former European Council president's comments came soon after the two-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The war upended an era of peace in Europe and pushed nations into ramping up weapons production.
The Polish prime minister noted a revolution in European mentality, as no one anymore questions the need for a common defense.
The need for a stronger Europe has come further into the spotlight as former US President Donald Trump, who is running for the 2024 elections, has openly expressed NATO-sceptic views.
The original article contains 324 words, the summary contains 137 words. Saved 58%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
No, it started when you morons decided that bullies you deal with and even help remain in power (because they are "reasonable" and their opposition is potentially neo-Nazi, communist or something) won't ever blackmail or even directly hurt you.
And since Turkey is still their ally, I'd say they've learned nothing.
I am confident those people (and even some here) think they are very smart politicians, know what they are doing, ends justify the means and all that.
Only they are not, the bullies understand the relationship better and will benefit more from it.
A friendly reminder that EU observers would call Russian elections up to standards (when there were enough mathematical proof that they weren't and also widespread protests), and people on the Web would defend that saying that if Putin's "stability" ends, there will be communists or neo-Nazis on top.
Fuck these people.
Everyone is well aware of Erdogan (also Orban). If we went to war or put sanctions on countries at the first sign of a country being slightly fashy, that's all the world would ever be and there would be no progress. In the interests of peace we do negoitiate we some dispicable people at times in the hopes that it will change in the future. And yes, we even negotiate with terrorists... there's currently a huge amounts of negotiations with Hamas happening right now. Because you have to take a balanced view between destroying evil bastards and the cost associated with destroying the evil bastards.
It's not always clear when we should stop negotiating and start isolating a country for being a little too fashy. And sanctions are a sliding scale, and there were indeed targeted sanctions on Russia before the current war in Ukraine. Obviously this didn't dissuade Russia from taking things forward.
So what's the red line where if a country crosses it we should give them the "fuck you" treatment rather than trying to encourage them to do better through diplomatic means? Hungary and Turkey are very very far from that line. Russia? They unilaterally invaded a neighbouring democratic country unprovoked. Yeah they took a big shit on that red line while crossing it. The get the "fuck you" treatment.
Just a side note I love how you go all the way to build up an argument around Erdogan & Orban to of course end up mentioning Hamas, but you conveniently ignore to mention the biggest thug of all Netanyahu who is running the craziest fascist state of all Israel. And checking out your post history I know exactly why you didn’t mention them.