“The norms of international law must be respected, which means that Ukraine should return to its internationally agreed borders. That is, Russia should withdraw from all the lands it has occupied, from the normally, internationally recognized borders of Ukraine. That is, to give back the Donetsk and Luhansk districts, give back the Crimea”, said President Andrzej Duda.

The President of Poland stated that “these were the internationally recognized lands of the Ukrainian state and Russia simply brutally occupied these lands, breaking all the rules.”

“So, either European politicians think that international law matters or they think that it does not matter if it concerns empires, but then they put the whole world in a position with no rules and it will end badly”, warns Andrzej Duda and adds that ” in this situation, we must recall the principles that should be applied, the principles which all states have signed up to, e.g. in the Charter of the United Nations”.

In an interview, the president also referred to the issue of Polish military aid for Ukraine.

“When we decided to give Ukraine tanks, we were guided by the interests of Poland, so that Ukraine would have the equipment to stop the Russian invasion. We did not consider whether someone would give us tanks or not, but that the Ukrainians would stop the Russians with these tanks”, said President Duda.

When asked if Poland would receive other tanks from one of the NATO countries as compensation, the president replied: “Of course, we would like to get an equivalent, it would be an element of strengthening our security. There was such a declaration from the German side, it has not been kept yet”.

Referring to NATO’s enlargement plans, President Duda stated that “both Finland and Sweden are needed in the North Atlantic Alliance. From our point of view, this is an important issue, because it is a kind of completing NATO’s eastern flank”, said the president and pointed out that this would also significantly extend Russia’s border with NATO, which is also important for Poland’s security.

Adrian Andrzejewski