Tusk Playing “Dangerous Game” with Ukraine War Talk

Donald Tusk has been urged to tread more carefully when talking about the war in Ukraine or risk raising international tensions even further.

After describing the conflict as “our war,” and calling on Europe to step up its response to Russia, the Polish prime minister received pushback from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who said:

You may think that you are at war with Russia, but Hungary is not. Neither is the European Union.

You are playing a dangerous game with the lives and security of millions of Europeans. This is very bad!

Tusk’s comment is simply the latest in a long line of rhetorical flexing by European officials. Journalist Mark Galeotti, who has been at the forefront of the commentary on the war in Ukraine, even noted in The Spectator on Tuesday that while “Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev, generally known for his toxic social media posts packed with threat and vitriol, is turning down the volume … various Western public figures are determinedly turning it up.”

The Polish leader is certainly not alone in talking about the prospect of a wider conflict. Former NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu, who is now a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute defence think tank, said on Wednesday that “the war is coming closer now and Europeans are taking it more personally.” Lungescu added: “Ukraine was always important, but now it directly affects their everyday lives,” likely pointing to recent drone incursions into Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.

An EU official also told Politico that “provocations will scale up. We still don’t understand how rapid we need to be.”