Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, said on Monday he “deeply believed” that Ukraine could win its war with Russia and that its people would live in peace.
Duda was speaking at ceremonies marking the Day of the Polish Diaspora and Poles Abroad.
“I believe deeply that Ukraine will win,” he said at a ceremony to bestow state honours on Polish diaspora activists. “I believe deeply that you will live in peace, who knows, maybe a peace in your homeland stronger than ever before.”
The president said that while Ukrainian refugees are formally refugees, “they are actually our guests. That’s how we treat them, that’s how we want them to feel.”
Duda went on to quote the words of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, who said “there is no border between Poland and Ukraine.”
“I deeply believe that in the future his words will be more prophetic,” Duda said. “And that one day we will see such a situation – a free, independent, sovereign Ukraine, in which Poles have lived for generations, and a free, sovereign, independent (Polish) Republic as brotherly states and a brotherly nation.”