Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski is not a man to shy away from a confrontation. When US billionaire Elon Musk stressed on Sunday how crucial his Starlink satellite service is for Ukraine, posting on X that the country's "entire front line would collapse if I turned it [Starlink] off," Sikorski didn't let the grass grow under his feet.

Sikorski promptly took to X and posted that "Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year. The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider, we will be forced to look for other suppliers."

This earned Sikorski a swift rebuke from across the Atlantic. "Be quiet, small man," retorted Musk. "You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also weighed in on the spat, saying "without Starlink, Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now."

On Monday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk entered the fray, urging restraint in the United States.

"True leadership means respect for partners and allies. Even for the smaller and weaker ones," he wrote on X. "Never arrogance. Dear friends, think about it."

Such a war of words between Poland and the US is unprecedented.

Although Tusk's center-left government is rattled by and in despair about President Donald Trump's criticism of Ukraine and his courting of Russia, Poland is on the front line and knows that it depends on its alliance with the US — no matter who sits in the White House.

Instead........

© Deutsche Welle