By Lucy Komisar
Sept 25, 2026
The Realist Review

The most bizarre comment of Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday was his comment about the Ukrainian Nazi who organized massacres of tens of thousands of Poles during WWII and who has been praised as a hero by Ukraine. He called him “flawed.” FLAWED?? But look, if you are a Russophobe promoting Ukraine you can’t say bad things about a Nazi who slaughtered your countrymen, can you?

That question came after mine, which I present here first and which of course also shows the egregious fabrications of this man who in 2002-2005 was a “scholar” at the rightwing American Enterprise Institute in Washington, indicating a connection to the U.S. Deep State, and who has reinvented himself as America’s guy in Warsaw.

Here’s what I asked him.

KOMISAR: My name is Lucy Komisar.

I’m a journalist. I’d say that Minister Sikorski’s comments have been much more nuanced than what I am normally hearing or reading from representatives of NATO countries. I was very interested in your comment that the war in Donbas is now in its 13th year. You are a rare person that acknowledges that it started, though you didn’t mention specifically, with the U.S. supported coup against the elected president Yanukovych and which led to banning the Russian language in Donbas which was one of the reasons why the people there rebelled and then we had 8 years of the Ukraine bombing Donbas which led to the entrance of the Russian troops.

The second point that you made was you don’t expect a ground troop Russian invasion of Europe, so what is the purpose of the military increases, what would they be for, because your countries are also suffering economically, look at the results in the German election. So, what what kind of military are you talking about when you don’t expect there would be a Russian invasion.

Those are the two points which I found really, sir, very nuanced on your part.

SIKORSKI:  I think you misunderstood what I said. it’s true that the Russians have crossed the international border into Ukraine 14 years ago, but it’s not true that there was a coup in Kiev or that Russia had to do it.

I was explaining this to Mr. Lavrov, who I’m sure approves of your comments, that if you have concerns about the language, the rights of minorities, including language rights, there are established procedures in Europe to do this. We have a Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Minorities, which says that if in any administrative region there is a minority more than 20%, Then in that region, you should have the minority language in courts, in schools, in offices, double street signs, double road signs. And we have this all over Europe. Go to Alto Adige, which the Austrians called South Tyrol. You’ll actually see treble. Also, they have a local language called Ladino. Look in Poland around Opole. We have double Polish-German names and so on.

So, the Russians are in their right to demand respect for minority rights, but it doesn’t give you the right to send in tanks and ballistic missiles. You see, Russia never invades. It didn’t invade Poland in the 18th century. It didn’t invade Poland with Nazi Germany in 1939. Russia always comes to the assistance of embattled national minorities, but it’s bullshit.

My comment (not in the discussion or the video because follow-ups are not allowed): Of course it’s more complicated, but Sikorski tells half-truths.

1939: The USSR invaded eastern Poland on 17 September, after Nazi Germany invaded from the west on 1 September. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the two regimes divided Poland.

Why did the Russians sign it?

The failure of an alliance with Britain and France. In summer 1939, Britain, France, and the USSR held talks about a joint front against Hitler. They stalled. Poland refused to allow Soviet troops on its territory, and the Western delegations were seen by Moscow as lacking real commitment. Stalin concluded he could not rely on the West.

The memory of Munich, 1938. The Munich Agreement let Hitler take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia without consulting the USSR. Stalin suspected Britain and France were trying to direct Hitler’s aggression eastward, against the Soviet Union. The pact was partly insurance against that.

 Buying time to rearm. Stalin knew war was coming. The Red Army had been badly weakened by the Great Purge of the late 1930s. A non-aggression pact would delay a German attack and give the USSR time to rebuild its military and industry.

June 1941: Germany invaded the USSR (Operation Barbarossa), so the Soviets became Allied enemies of Nazi Germany.

1944–1945: The Red Army fought the Nazis in Poland and pushed them out. Key moments: entering Poland in 1944, the Warsaw Uprising and the Vistula–Oder offensive in January 1945, which cleared most of Poland.

And, of course more recently there was a coup in Ukraine. U.S. official Victoria Nuland then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, was hacked talking on a mobile phone to Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, about who they wanted as the next foreign minister. She said “Yats,” Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk, who indeed got the job. The audio was uploaded to YouTube on February 4, 2014, during the Maidan protests.

Click YouTube. Or Archive.org.

It appeared to be a continuation of U.S. efforts to exert influence in Ukraine post the Soviet breakup. In a speech in December 2013, Nuland said the U.S. had “invested over $5 billion” in Ukraine since 1991.

Also of course, neither the Poles nor any other anti-Russian countries said anything about the new Ukraine government banning the Russian language, spoken by about a third of the Ukrainian population, in schools or other public places. Nor do they now condemn the attacks on Russian orthodox churches and clergy.

Links to video of the Council meeting, my question is 30 min in: The Council or Youtube.

Here’s the question of journalist Andrew Nagorski:

Hello, Minister Sikorski: History, of course, has always haunted Ukrainian-Polish relations. To what extent have the recent disputes about UPA and the Volhynia massacre undermined popular support in Poland for Ukraine? Certainly, the mood is different than it was at the start of the Russian invasion.

He was referring to an issue described the same day in this NYT article “Bitter Historical Feud Threatens Ukraine-Poland Alliance.”

Sikorski: “Hi, Andrew. Yes, we had a spat, which was unnecessary.

President Zelensky made a mistake, in my view. Ukraine has so many genuine heroes, it doesn’t need to celebrate heroes with flaws and people who committed atrocities. And unfortunately, these disputes… exploited by politicians and reach to ordinary people. Of course, a huge Russian disinformation campaign and polarization campaign exploited these cracks.

I think we’ve now overcome it. And both the presidents have met, the prime ministers have a good relationship. We are preparing the largest. military support package for Ukraine soon. We need each other, and history is very important and must be studied and acknowledged. But as politicians, our only power is to prevent bad stuff from recurring.”

The “Nazi” referred to is Roman Shukhevych, a commander of the UPA. The UPA was responsible for the Volhynia massacres of 1943, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Poles. Sikorski has a documented history of criticizing the glorification of such figures. In a separate statement, he compared honoring Bandera (another Ukrainian nationalist leader) to erecting monuments to Nazi leaders in Germany

So what is a little massacre between friends! Let’s just go kill some other people.

Fascinating to see a suave sophisticated very well-dressed operative like Sikorski who lies whenever his mouth moves.

I have to add I would have been disappointed if Sikorski hadn’t included the “you are repeating Russian talking points” with his comment “I was explaining this to Mr. Lavrov, who I’m sure approves of your comments, that if you have concerns about the language, the rights of minorities,…. ”

I find that egregiously disgusting. Hey, you think Russian speakers should be allowed to use their language. So does Lavrov. You said the sky is blue, Putin said the sky is blue, therefore…… .

He did not answer the question of why big increases in defense spending if Russia does not plan to invade Europe. Drones are pretty cheap. So what is the money for? (Except for kickbacks from arms companies.)

The advantage of being a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1994 is to see up front the individuals who create the horror so many of the world’s people suffer, most caused by the U.S. and its allies.

Add: Thanks to a reader for this. Sikorski is listed as a member of the Bullingdon Club. From the not leftwing Wikipedia: “The Bullingdon Club is a private all-male dining club for Oxford University students. It is known for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants, hotels, students’ rooms, commercial and private banks. The club selects its members not only on the grounds of wealth and willingness to participate but also by reference to their education…Membership is expensive, with tailor-made uniforms, regular gourmet hospitality, and a tradition of on-the-spot payment for damage.” A British member is Boris Johnson.