The ordeal having been experienced by the Ukrainian people since the outbreak of the war results in compassion shown to them in many countries. One doesn’t have to look far – Polish aid to the refugees from the East is an emphatic example here.

However, the Ukrainians are being perceived not only as victims of wartime violence. The world is talking about them as of a new David courageously defying Goliath – of a heroic nation bravely repelling the Russian aggression. And this message cannot be deafened by those Western politicians who are running around to do business with Russia as usual and so they are tacitly expecting that the Ukrainians are ready to make some concessions to the Russians in exchange for peace.

But there is one more aspect of the current situation requiring to be pointed out. The war in Ukraine is not only a struggle where the stake for the Ukrainian nation is “to be or not be”. In the West (including Poland) an opinion circulates that we are dealing with an axiological conflict. It’s all about a clash in which the Ukrainian state represents democracy, and the Russian state represents authoritarianism. Therefore it is obvious whose side the sympathies of people mentally formed by the Western political culture should be on.

For this reason it is difficult not to be a ukainophile in the West. However, as time goes by, ukrainophilia in Western countries may become a politically incorrect attitude. Why? The answer to this question is to be found within conclusions arising from the words spoken a few weeks ago by Volodymyr Zelenksy in a talk with Ukrainian journalists.

Behold the president of Ukraine stated it was impossible for the country he is the head of to be “liberal and European” in the future, after the victorious war. In his opinion it will be strong by the strength of every Ukrainian household and every Ukrainian. State defence will be task number one – Zelensky announced, the Ukrainian society will become one “great army”. The politician added that in his country there will be no reason for astonishment at the sight of soldiers in supermarkets or cinemas. Finally Zelensky announced that Ukraine will become “a great Israel with its own visage”.

According to the Ukrainian president such is the perspective for the next 10 years. And the state – as he noticed – which forces the Ukrainians to militarize their society is the Russian Federation. At the same time the politician explained that such a scenario doesn’t equal entering a path towards authoritarianism. Zelensky expressed his conviction that actually democracy is the source of Ukrainians’ patriotism. He suggested they spilt blood for the entire nation and not – unlike the Russians – for one man who leads a country.

It wasn’t for the first time that Zelensky compared Ukraine to Israel. Earlier on – in March this year – he did so during his speech given online to the Knesset. In this address he evoked the figure of Golda Meir, Israeli prime-minister in the years 1969-74, originally from Kyiv. He quoted her words: “We want to carry on alive. Our neighbours see us dead. This issue doesn’t leave much room for compromise”. He spoke about the community of fate bonding Ukrainians with Jews – not only with Israelis. For he was drawing parallels between the ongoing drama of the Ukrainian nation and the Holocaust.

And it was precisely this setting of the scene by the Ukrainian politician has stirred up controversy in Israel. Voices arose saying that although the Ukrainians are through a nightmare, in this case one cannot establish an analogy with what Adolf Hilter had done to the Jews. This argument was used, for instance, by the Israeli PM, Naftali Bennett.

But even if it is him to be right, it cannot be omitted that Zelensky himself is a Ukrainian of Jewish origin. Therefore it can be assumed that the president of Ukraine approaches the memory of the Holocaust with the same veneration as many Israelis do.

But if Ukraine was really to follow in Israel’s steps it is worth reminding that the world’s attitude to this state ever since its creation in 1948 had been changing.

Shortly after WW II Jews’ aspirations to gain political subjectivity in their historical lands met with sympathy from progressive milieus in Western countries. They also enjoyed the support of the Communist Bloc (although in this case the Soviets wanted primarily to harm the British who exercised a mandate over Palestine).

However, in the 60s Israel began to morph into a villain in the eyes of its hitherto allies. During the Six-Day War in 1967 the Eastern Bloc (except Romania) took sides with the Arabic countries. And in the progressives circles in the West Israel was ever more often accused of pursuing a repressive nationalist policy against the Palestinian people.

It can be noted that in Western countries the Left politically instrumentalised the Jews. It needed them in the role of a persecuted (if not endangered of non-existence) ethnic minority for its narrative about anti-Semitism as a crime committed by the Right. However, it was enough that they turned out to be a proud nation that had built its own superpower and, a smear campaign started on the Left.

It may likewise happen to Ukraine. Today the partisans of the woke culture look at its inhabitants almost the same way as at women, “LGBT”, Muslims, and other groups whom they treat as victims of the “white”, “patriarchal” civilisation. But it will be enough if the Ukrainians do not fit this framework and they will cease to be progressivists’ favourites.

– Filip Memches

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

– Translated by Dominik Szczęsny-Kostanecki