Politics hates vacuum. A Conversation with Mark BLOWER

– 25 and 26 June 2026 in Gdańsk will be held the Conference for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, organized by the governments of both our countries. According to estimates, the cost of reconstruction could exceed $500 billion. president Zelenski is to arrive in Gdańsk, but after the White Eagle Order was taken from him by president Nawrocki, it is not certain that he will appear.

“The German Chancellor Merz is coming to Gdańsk. Therefore, this conference will have a more European dimension than Polish-Ukrainian, which will let the crisis to stay silent in relations with Kiev. Therefore, I say president Zelenski will come, but I do not anticipate the presence of president Nawrocki. After the decision to collect Zelensk Order of the White Eagle in Ukraine, we had to deal with an organized wave of Polish awards by many crucial Ukrainian politicians: the minister of abroad affairs, the head of the cabinet of the president or the ambassador of Ukraine in Warsaw, which in my opinion would make his mission very hard for him. The Ukrainian side claims that taking the award from their president offends the Ukrainian people more than Zelenski himself. If in the same categories we treat the rendering of Polish distinctions by Ukrainian politicians, I realize that their intention is to offend the Polish people. That kind of logic is very dangerous.

– Whether crucial decisions can be made in Gdańsk, or, as many Western media write, the cake has already been divided between the US, large Britain, Germany, Canada and China, and Poland in reconstruction of Ukraine will stay scraps.

– This conference can and should be utilized to sign agreements, primarily concerning cooperation with the Ukrainian arms sector, a model of what Ukraine has late signed with Germany. It would be good if we joined the Frey task (the construction of a European strategy to combat ballistic missiles – for example the author), a task to build a European airspace protection strategy or a drone armada, which Ukrainians want to build with European private companies.