Today, the presidents of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine will hold a meeting in Lublin, Poland. Andrzej Duda, Dalia Grybauskaite and Petro Poroshenko will discuss issues related to joint defense projects. Duda and Grybauskaite will hold separate talks on the creation of a joint council of defense ministers, airspace data exchange between the two states and the issue of uniting their military units within NATO. Then the Ukrainian president will join them.
Petro Poroshenko doesn't come empty-handed to the neighbors. On the eve of his visit to Poland, the Verkhovna Rada approved the constitutional amendments, which established in the Fundamental Law of Ukraine a foreign policy doctrine of Kiev’s accession to NATO and the European Union. Petro Poroshenko, at the initiative of which the Ukrainian Constitution was amended, said that now they cannot get out of the pro-Western vector, since "this is our common task to apply for EU and NATO membership and obtain a NATO membership plan no later than 2023."
Kiev's actions delighted its partners. Hence, Poroshenko’s trip to his friends in Ljubljana is "not empty-handed". Poland and Lithuania, in turn, publicly and privately promise every assistance to Ukraine in joining NATO. In their opinion, it will also help Kiev in the confrontation with Moscow. Everything is clear and transparent - now the West is clapping everything directed against Moscow, and the three neighboring countries, which, by the way, periodically make claims to each other in the backstage, including territorial ones, "on the open stage" demonstrate friendship and good neighborliness cemented by anti-Russia sentiment. At this stage, the main line of Warsaw and Vilnius support for Kiev is transformation of Ukrainian Armed Forces to achieve NATO standards. This process is best provided by joint exercises, and this year the heads of three states plan to hold 25 such exercises, that is, several exercises every month!
Apparently, the city of Lublin was not chosen by accident for holding the trilateral meeting, but taking into account some symbolism: a joint Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade is stationed in this eastern Polish city. The meeting of the three leaders "against the background" of the joint grouping is intended to demonstrate the strength of the "triple alliance" and another demonstration of certain plans or intentions or just a position to the eastern neighbor.
Before his visit to Lublin, Poroshenko submitted a plan to the Parliament for admission of foreign military personnel with weapons and equipment to participate in joint military exercises in the territory of Ukraine. The document also contains accompanying explanations that the measures taken are necessary to "ensure continued support at the appropriate level of Ukraine's defence capabilities, Ukrainian military’s preparedness, as well as of other military formations; in particular, conducting military exercises, improving the effectiveness of the national development programs of the Ukrainian armed forces in the general context of the state’s strategic foreign policy." According to sources in Kiev, the Verkhovna Rada will approve the draft law next week.
The plan contains a pedantic enumeration of all 25 joint exercises, with a detailed indication of their venue and the number of servicemen - Ukrainian and foreign ones, as well as the number of weapons - Ukrainian and foreign ones. According to some experts, this kind of documents are usually not fully declassified, like Ukraine did in this case, but partly, and obviously, such openness of the Ukrainian side testifies not only to the commitment to new-fangled trends of ensuring so-called transparency, but also represents some kine of demonstration for Russia. The number of Ukrainian Armed Forces' participation in bilateral or multilateral exercises is unprecedented, that's indisputable. At the same time, some Ukrainian political scientists urge not to forget that the demonstrative nature of what is happening is most likely connected with the launch of Petro Poroshenko's election campaign, which is expected to be extremely difficult for him. Up to the point that as of now, according to various polls, the incumbent president may not reach the second-round vote, noticeably losing to showman Vladimir Zelensky and leader of Fatherland Yulia Tymoshenko.
Political analyst Alexei Martynov said in an exclusive commentary for Vestnik Kavkaza that he see nothing new in the trilateral summit in Lublin, since the positions of Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania, their attitude to Russia is well known, as it is well known that friendship against someone usually doesn't end well. "It's the 21st century, but serious people start playing Zarnitsa-like games, as if there have no real problems. But it’s up to them. However, it would be nice for them to remember that they are at the head of the recently published anti-rating of politicians, with whom Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to communicate in the last place. And the absolute leader in the list is Petro Poroshenko, with whom the Russian president no longer speaks even by telephone. It is the time for the head of the neighboring state to think about why it happened, but it seems he does not need it. In this case, Moscow doesn't want it either," Alexey Martynov said.
