Anna Walentynowicz combines the Polish-Ukrainian friendship. Her monument in Kiev symbolizes Poland’s solidarity with Ukraine, president Andrzej Duda said on Monday during the ceremony of unveiling the monument to Anna Walentynowicz in the Ukrainian capital.
During the ceremony, the president recalled that Walentynowicz, also known as “Anna Solidarity”, was one of the founders of the great Solidarity movement. He indicated that the strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard in 1980 began precisely because Anna Walentynowicz was dismissed from the position of crane worker.
The president pointed out that Anna Walentynowicz was born on the territory of today’s Ukraine, and therefore “it can be said that she as a person combines the great value of Polish-Ukrainian friendship, which is our coexistence”.
“She was as if between two worlds, between the world of the Republic of Poland and the world of Ukraine, where her relatives were. Hence, also here, in Kiev, this statue of Anna Walentynowicz is so extremely important and I hope it is so symbolic,” Duda said.
He emphasized that the statue of Anna Walentynowicz symbolizes Poland’s solidarity with Ukraine and “Poles’ solidarity with their Ukrainian brothers,” for whom we want them to have the full possibility of self-determination and that they can live in peace.