Polish President Andrzej Duda has compared Soviet aggression against Poland to Russia’s war in Ukraine, stating that the crimes committed in Katyn are similar to recent atrocities in Bucha, according to UkrInform.
According to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact signed with Germany, the Red Army crossed the Polish border on 17 September 1939 under the pretext of protecting the population of Western Ukraine and Belarus.
“The result of this was Katyn and the murder of Polish officers by the Soviet authorities. These were hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes, who began their ‘Golgotha of the East’: deportations to Siberia, persecution by Soviet communists,” Duda emphasized.
The Polish president made these remarks while laying a wreath at the “Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East” in Warsaw.
He highlighted that these were “the darkest years” for Poland in the last century, with Poland ending up in the Soviet sphere of influence after the war and Russian troops withdrawing from Poland only in 1993.
Duda stressed that the current Russian aggression against Ukraine and the crimes of the Russians, such as those in Bucha, “bear a strong resemblance to the Katyn method of killing defenseless people with their hands tied behind their backs.”
“We, Poles, are well aware of this, and we understand well how the Ukrainians are suffering today, which is why we want to help our Ukrainian neighbors. We hope that Russian imperialism will not prevail and that the Western community, to which we belong, will stand bravely, courageously, and resolutely against Russian imperialism and support the Ukrainians today in defending their homeland from Russian aggression,” Duda said.
He noted that history shows that whether it is tsarist, Soviet, or Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s imperialism, “it is all the same terrible monster.”
“It is the same Russian model of colonialism, domination over other peoples, seizing their territory, natural resources, exploiting them, enslaving them, imposing their ideology, imposing what they call ‘Russkiy Mir,’ which we do not want,” Duda emphasized.
He stressed that Poland belongs to the Western cultural circle. Therefore, Poles “have stood and will stand in defense of those who are defending themselves from Russian domination and the imposition of Russian cultural patterns,” meaning Ukraine.
Related:
- Stoltenberg admits NATO’s pre-war support for Ukraine fell short
- Former UK officials push for unilateral approval for Ukraine’s long-range missile use in Russia
- Politico: Biden deliberates on Ukraine’s missile use in Russia as nuclear plants face rising threats
- NATO chief Stoltenberg defends Ukraine’s right to strike targets in Russia
