In an interview with the British broadcaster BBC, Polish President Andrzej Duda stated that peace in Ukraine can only be achieved when Russia fully withdraws from the country and relinquishes all of the territories it has taken over.
On Sunday, prior to his scheduled visit to London on Thursday and Friday, Polish President Andrzej Duda stated in an interview that peace is only achievable through strict adherence to international law. He noted that he had previously expressed this sentiment in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
“So it is a fact that if the war is to end, if the Russian aggression is to end, the primacy of international law must be restored. International law must prevail.”
Duda said.
The president continued to state that, as dictated by international law, Ukraine must be restored to its internationally recognised boundaries, thus requiring Russians to vacate the regions of Ukraine which have been seized unlawfully.
In 2014, the Russian government annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, and provided backing to pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. In September 2022, it announced its annexation of areas in and around four Ukrainian south-eastern cities: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
Duda, when asked if he was irritated that some European countries had not been as supportive of Ukraine as Poland, stated that a politician should not be annoyed.
“I’m doing what I think is appropriate in the interest of Poles and from the perspective of the security of our part of Europe – and the security of Ukraine […] It is important for us to ensure that a free and sovereign Ukraine survives and exists… and Russia’s resurgent imperialism is stopped,”
Duda said.
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