At the end of last week US President Donald Trump said that Russia has already attacked Ukraine's European allies and has been doing so for nearly five years. To quote what he actually said:
"Well, I think they [the Russians] already have attacked Ukrainian allies. They've been attacking Ukrainian allies for approximately five years. So I do agree with that. I think everyone agrees with it."
In context Trump was responding to a journalist's question about Polish leaders' concerns over a possible Russian attack on Ukraine's allies in Europe. This follows an official proposal, made in June by Polish defence minister to the US Secretary of Defence for the establishment of a new permanent US military base in Poland. Trump reportedly said on 17 September that "major progress" had been made towards this.
Furthermore, on 16 September, concerning a potential threat from Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a new security strategy. This is largely due to an increase in Russian hybrid attacks on Europe, aimed specifically at European countries and intended to complement NATO's Article 4.
Coming back to my main point the fact is that Russia, in addition to directly attacking Ukraine has been poking, hacking, sabotaging, and harassing the countries that support Ukraine for years.
Here are just a few examples, all public, all documented:
- Poland (2021–2024): Russian‑linked groups tried to sabotage rail lines carrying Western weapons to Ukraine. Polish authorities arrested multiple agents planning arson at military warehouses. Russian agents are also implicated in the massive fire in a massive shopping complex to the north of Warsaw (Marywilska 44) in 2024
- Czech Republic (2021): Their intelligence tied Russia’s GRU to blowing up an ammunition depot that supplied Ukraine. Not “maybe,” not “allegedly.” They expelled Russian diplomats over it. The Nord Stream Gas Pipelines were almost certainly sabotaged by Russia in 2022
- Baltic States (2019–2024): Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania — nonstop Russian cyberattacks, airspace violations, and military harassment. These countries are literally Ukraine’s loudest supporters.
- United States (2020): The SolarWinds cyberattack hit US government agencies. The US officially blamed Russia’s SVR. The US is obviously Ukraine’s biggest ally.
- Germany (2023–2024): Arrests of Russian agents planning sabotage against military infrastructure helping Ukraine.
- UK (2021–2023): Russia targeted British MPs and government networks with cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns and we have not even mentioned the Salisbury Poisonings or the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko that predate the recent conflict . • Belarus (acting for Russia, 2021–2022): They pushed migrants toward Poland and Lithuania in a hybrid attack meant to destabilize NATO’s eastern flank — the same flank supporting Ukraine.
So, this time I will take my hat off to Trump. He is absolutely right when he says Russia has been “attacking Ukraine’s allies for about five years.”
I strongly disagree with his almost everything about Trump. Any idea that Russia only started causing trouble internationally in 2022 is just political amnesia.
In fact I would even go as far as to say that there is a pattern that shows Russia has been testing and hitting any country that helps Ukraine, long before the full invasion.
err... 3-day special operation I mean - now going on for Four Years and Seven months!
What we now need is for Trump to follow through and stop flip-flopping about Putin. He has seen the light, he just needs to follow though.
Somehow, I think he will fail.
After all the idiot got it right on this call and for him to make a second good call seems very unlikely.
As always stay safe and well my friends.
