PM Tusk warns against world conflict
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Leaders of all Polish political parties met on Sunday with Prime Minister Donald Tusk to discuss the Crimean crisis. Prime Minister Tusk said that the current situation in Crimea “bears all the characteristics of a conflict that could be the prelude to war involving all the countries in the world,” Tusk said after the meeting and added that even in the best-case scenario, the ramifications of the conflict “will be serious.”
The prime minister said that so far “there is no direct threat to Poland and its borders” but added that Poland needs to be unrelenting in urging its friends not to allow this conflict to escalate further.
On Saturday President Bronisław Komorowski talked to the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia about the crisis and condemned Russia’s actions on the Crimean peninsula.
Poland and Lithuania also called upon NATO’s North Atlantic Council to convene pursuant to Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides for consultation when “the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened.” NATO’s Council convened on Sunday, but not under that provision. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen did however condemn Russia’s military action in Crimea, as did US Secretary General John Kerry in an earlier statement.
Polish politicians are also vocal about the way the conflict is portrayed by Russian media. In a tweeted message, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski called the broadcasts by Russia’s English-language station RToday “disgusting propaganda,” and added that, “Politicians make their biggest mistakes when they start believing in their own lies.”
