Poland

Once the war ends, we will face the challenge of helping to rebuild Ukraine. This is necessary for the development of our entire region.

A distance of 400 km and 82 years separates Bucha from Katyn. Only a little more divides Mariupol from Warsaw.

There are two futures of Europe. Since the Treaty of Rome, the Treaties have included the ambition to forge “an ever-closer union” among the people (not peoples) of Europe. And then there is George H. W. Bush’s vision of Europe, “whole and free”.

The world must seek out-of-the-box solutions. Only in this way will we be able to head off the dangers of a domino effect. By changing the geometry of geopolitics, Ukraine has given us hope today

The ancient Romans used to say si vis pacem, para bellum, in other words “If you want peace, prepare for war”. However, this Latin adage conveys not only the basic doctrine of the art of war, but also the principle that guides Narodowy Bank Polski when taking its anti-crisis measures.

For the last quarter century, the Polish economy has been an underappreciated success story – underappreciated certainly in my country, the United States.

The providers of huge funds feeding Putin’s war machine still lecture Poland on the rule of law and pretend to see no difference between the defence against the migrants invading the EU from Belarus and the help offered to Ukrainian refugees. 

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów) was a state that existed in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and was inhabited by Lithuanians, Poles, Belarussians and Ukrainians.

On the 3rd of May each year the Poles celebrate the anniversary of the passing of their 1791 constitution, the first such document of its kind in Europe and only the second in the world. 

The idea of Polish solidarity gives hope for a different organisation of our part of the world – one that is contrary to the “Russkiy mir”.

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

Relations between our nations are complicated. But in a time of big challenges, we are able to move forward, despite the pain of the past in our hearts. This gives us a place for reconciliation.

Many of the factors identified by social scientists as driving anti-immigration attitudes – unfamiliarity, security concerns, “non-deservingness” – simply do not apply to the current case of Ukrainian refugees

WW2 left the Poles scattered across many continents. Soldiers and civilians alike covered hundreds of kilometres in the Soviet Union, Middle East and Western Europe. They marched on hoping to return to a free country.

Over the last two weeks two million people have left their homes in Ukraine and crossed the border into Poland. Each week a million refugees, mainly the elderly and women with children, have poured into my country. The poor of this world are fleeing from soldiers who shoot at women and children, at hospitals, at schools and housing estates and who bomb Russians’ blocks of flats.

After 1945, the world paid tribute to the soldiers who had contributed to the victory over Nazi Germany. Not so in Poland. The communist government did all it could to make people forget about war-time heroes, and those who dared oppose the new regime were mistreated most persistently and adamantly. It is only today that we can honour them as they deserve.

The relations between Turkey and Poland, two countries that do not share a border today, have a depth far beyond expectations. In this context, it would be expedient to remember the deep-rooted reasons for today’s friendly relations in the context of many negative and positive events that occurred in the past.

Neither the Christian philosopher Bach, nor the radiant genius Mozart, nor the eccentric mystic and fantasist Schumann, nor the arch-virtuoso Liszt held such sway over the minds and hearts of Russian musicians, pianists, and intelligent, well-educated people, as the piano virtuoso who came from Poland. The fiery revolutionist Beethoven might have had a similar kind of influence, but the lyricist Fryderyk Chopin was unequalled.

The home where the eminent pianist spent his youth was located within the walls of the Warsaw University. It has survived all the cataclysms of history and, in the coming years, will become a special memorial to Chopin – writes Jerzy MIZIOŁEK

On the day the results of the previous 2015 Chopin Competition were announced, Asian Internet users searched for “Chopin” more often than they did for “shopping”. When the results were announced in 2021, competition videos were watched almost 3 million times.