Poland’s prime minister says the West’s appeasement of Vladimir Putin must stop

THE WAR IN Ukraine makes us realise that, though history is a good teacher, it has some poor students. Several Western European politicians have forgotten the lesson offered by the Munich agreement of 1938. The analogies with the present situation are striking. The policy of appeasement, spearheaded by Britain’s prime minister at the time, Neville Chamberlain, was followed by the outbreak of the second world war within a year.

In February 2007, almost 70 years after the infamous Munich conference, Vladimir Putin openly announced his desire to dismantle the post-cold war order in Europe. The following year, he attacked Georgia. Six years after that, he occupied Crimea and set Donbas in eastern Ukraine ablaze. And, another eight years on, he began the bloodiest stage of his plan so far. The demons of history have returned. We are witnessing genocide again.