GERMANY and the United States have recently made headlines by deciding to send tanks to Ukraine. However, the unsung hero behind this landmark decision was actually Poland. Polish leaders were instrumental in efforts to persuade Berlin in particular of the need to provide Ukraine with modern tanks. This was the latest example of Polish leadership over the past year as Europe has found itself confronted by the continent’s largest armed conflict since World War II.

Poland’s leading role in the European response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion reflects the country’s extensive experience of Russian imperialism in both its Czarist and Soviet forms. Ever since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, politicians in Warsaw have been warning Europe of the growing threat posed by a resurgent and revisionist Russia.

The Poles have been particularly alarmed by indications of deepening ties between Berlin and Moscow, and were vocal opponents of German partnership in Russia’s Nord Stream II gas pipeline. Polish politicians saw this strategic energy infrastructure project as a modern-day successor to the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which sparked the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of Poland by the Nazi and Soviet regimes. They warned that the pipeline allowed Putin to bypass Ukraine’s gas transit system and would expose the country to a full-scale invasion, while leaving the whole of Europe vulnerable to Russian energy blackmail. Germany chose to ignore these warnings until the eve of Russia’s February 2022 attack.