Poland knows more than most European countries about the realities of war and the cruelties of foreign occupation. Since it regained its independence in 1918, it has spent almost half of the time under German or Russian domination. Now, it is being menaced by the latest iteration of the Russian empire.
The possibility of war has usually been regarded as unthinkable in Western Europe. But in Warsaw, it feels much more real. So when Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, describes Russia’s drone invasion of its airspace as an act that has brought the prospect of military conflict “closer than at any time since the Second World War”, he should be taken seriously.
