A Real Possibility that Keeps Putin up at Nights

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish President Karol Nawrocki laid the foundations of a relationship that is destined to scare Russi
an führer enough to keep him up at nights.

The two national leaders of neighboring countries discussed the Russian war versus Ukraine, its effect on Ukraine and Poland, and a range of mutual concerns, during a private meeting in Warsaw on Friday, December 19. They also signaled progress on historical reconciliation, which had caused tension in bilateral relations in the past, according to observers.

In numerous blogposts over the years I have written about the wide range of benefits of such a partnership not only between Ukraine and Poland but also among all x-captive nations of Russian subjugation.

The meeting was the first between the two European leaders since Nawrocki was inaugurated as Poland’s new president on August 6, 2025, and they discussed security matters largely involving Russia, along with economic concerns and historical issues, according to the Kyiv Independent.

Zelenskyy said the meeting was the start of a new chapter for the relationship between the two nations and is “bad news for Russia.” It’s tantamount to the fear that a prison warden feels when unjustly incarcerated prisoners are released from detention.

“I very much hope that this visit opens a new and even more substantial chapter in our relations – the relations between Ukraine and Poland, the relations not merely of neighbors, but of two European pillars without which there will simply be no freedom in our part of Europe, because there will be no security,” Zelenskyy told media afterward during a joint press conference, according to a variety of sources.

“Russia wants discord, wants to destroy and dismantle such a strong alliance – the alliance of two peoples of many generations of Ukraine and Poland,” Zelenskyy said. “We will not allow them to do this.”

He said Ukrainian and Polish independence deters Russian aggression in Eastern Europe but warned that Russia would continue into Poland if Ukraine were to fall amid the nearly four-year war there that began when Russia invaded on February 24, 2022. Indeed, Ukraine and Poland stand as solid united bulwarks against age-old Russian aggression and westward invasions.

Nawrocki noted, “In strategic matters, our strategic cooperation in the field of security issues, Poland, Ukraine, countries of the region, countries filled with democratic values are together and this has never been in doubt.”

Nawrocki said Poland supported efforts to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine as well as further sanctions against Russia and action against its shadow fleet. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to share its expertise on drone defense and welcomed Polish businesses to participate in Ukraine’s reconstruction.

“If Russia drags out this war — and that is exactly the signal the entire world hears from Moscow, as they continue to threaten us — we will use these funds for defense, if the war continues,” Zelenskyy said in Warsaw. “If the world compels Russia to make peace, we will use these funds exclusively for the reconstruction of our country.”

Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania have been forming a strong military alliance under the Lublin Triangle agreement—the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade (LitPolUkrBrig).

Bipartisan support for the intentions of the captive nations has always been strong in Washington, DC – except for during the Trump presidency.

Prof. Lev Dobriansky, former president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), in 1959 persuaded Congress and the Eisenhower Administration to adopt the Captive Nations Proclamation, which he personally drafted. The proclamation, embedded in Public Law 86-90, was a litany of anti-Soviet pro-freedom paragraphs:

“Whereas since 1918 the imperialistic and aggressive policies of Russian communism have resulted in the creation of a vast empire which poses a dire threat to the security of the United States and of all the free peoples of the world;

“Whereas the imperialistic policies of Communist Russia have led, through direct and indirect aggression, to the subjugation of the national independence of Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, White Ruthenia, Rumania, East Germany, Bulgaria, mainland China, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, North Korea, Albania, Idel-Ural, Tibet, Cossackia, Turkestan, North Viet-Nam, and others…

“Whereas these submerged nations look to the United States as the citadel of human freedom, for leadership in bringing about their liberation and freedom and in restoring to them the enjoyment of their Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist or other religious freedoms and of their individual liberties…”

The essential formation of such an alliance has precedent based on World War Two. The Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN) was a coordinating center for anti-Communist émigré political organizations from Soviet and other socialist countries. The ABN attributes its existence and its ideological foundations to an underground conference of representatives of non-Russian peoples that took place on November 21-22, 1943, near Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on the initiative of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The attendees adopted a platform of joint revolutionary struggle against Russian communism. The goal of the ABN was the dissolution of the Soviet Union into national states. Given an organizational structure in Munich in 1946, the ABN extended its scope of activity to include the Eastern European emigration.

The following organizations were members of the ABN from its inception or for varying periods of time: “Free Armenia” Committee, Bulgarian National Front, Belorussian Central Council, Cossack National Liberation Movement, Croatian National Liberation Movement, Czech Movement for Freedom (Za Svobodu), Czech National Committee, Estonian Liberation Movement, Union of the Estonian Fighters for Freedom, Georgian National Organization, Hungarian Liberation Movement, Hungarian Mindszenty Movement, Latvian Association for the Struggle against Communism, Lithuanian Rebirth Movement, Slovak Liberation Committee, National Turkestanian Unity Committee, United Hetman Organization, and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Bandera faction).

The formal establishment of an updated bloc of former captive nations of Russian subjugation can be a genuine fortification against Russian expansionism, imperialism and aggression, while standing in defense of the newly independence countries.