The Former Polish Foreign Minister Has A Point In Partially Blaming Ukraine For Its Predicament
Regardless of whichever side one supports in this proxy war, the indisputable fact is that Ukraine’s corruption resulted in it being unprepared to fight Russia while its elite’s delusions of grandeur were responsible for provoking Moscow’s special operation in the first place.
Former Polish Foreign Minister and current Member of the European Parliament Radoslaw Sikorski very strongly implied during an interview with the magazine Krytyka Polityczna on Friday that Ukraine is partially to blame for its present predicament. To be clear, he still unwaveringly supports Kiev against Russia in this proxy war, but Sikorski still thinks that it could have been much better prepared prior to the start of Moscow’s special operation. In his own words per Google Translate:
“Their elites were simply wasting their time, hiding their corruption and delusions of grandeur behind a story that they were playing some big game with the US, Russia, Europe, China... After all, Ukraine emerged from the Soviet economic world in a better shape than us, with built nuclear power plants, an aviation industry, no debts and the most fertile lands in the world, yet before last year's invasion it had a GDP four times smaller than Poland. The Ukrainians are now paying dearly for this maneuvering.”
Poland’s former top diplomat is basically saying Ukraine squandered the amazing opportunities that it inherited from the USSR due to its elite’s corruption and delusions of grandeur. Regarding the first, this hollowed that former Soviet Republic out and turned it into a failed state by most developmental indicators, while the second might have begun as an information warfare means of manipulating other countries’ perceptions but was ultimately believed by their own decisionmakers.
Both proved to be equally responsible for Ukraine’s present predicament. Had corruption not completely eaten away at its previously impressive economic potential, then this country would have been in a much better position to militarily react to Russia’s related moves instead of nowadays being fully dependent on foreign support to this end. Simply put, corruption also ate away at Ukraine’s military potential, which then forced it to become a NATO vassal since it didn’t want to surrender to Russia.
As for its elite’s delusions of grandeur, this also contributed to last year’s game-changing events by inadvertently provoking them after Kiev wrongly thought that it could play an indispensable role in the unprecedented power play plotted by the US-led West’s Golden Billion against Russia. Instead of fearing that Moscow might militarily defend the integrity of its national security red lines in Ukraine that Kiev let NATO cross there, its elite dismissed that scenario as unrealistic due to their delusions of grandeur.
The outcome of Ukraine’s corruption and aforesaid delusions was that this country comprehensively weakened itself by its own hand in parallel with provoking Russia to militarily intervene within the borders that Kiev still claims as its own. Had corruption not eaten away at its potential, then Ukraine wouldn’t have been forced to become a NATO vassal in order to fight Russia, nor would they likely have even fought had Kiev not delusionally thought it could cross Moscow’s red lines with impunity.
Sikorski therefore touched upon some very tough truths that average Westerners remain reluctant to recognize but which should nevertheless be deeply dwelled upon by those intrepid observers among them. Regardless of whichever side one supports in this proxy war, the indisputable fact is that Ukraine’s corruption resulted in it being unprepared to fight Russia while its elite’s delusions of grandeur were responsible for provoking Moscow’s special operation in the first place.