Czech

I experience this dually. Having a Polish mother and being half-Polish myself, I am more sensitive to the consequences not only of the communist putsch in Czechoslovakia in 1948, the terror of the 1950s, August 1968 or normalisation but also of Poland’s fate throughout history – partitioned by the great powers several times, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Katyn, the Warsaw Uprising, martial law in the 1980s… My Polish genes manifest themselves in stubbornness and determination. In situations like the one we experience now, I am always reminded of the Polish nation’s ability to stand up to adversity and not give in to violence.

Prague has shown it can engage in serious gestures of support of Ukraine; now, it will need to prove it can do high politics.