2024-02-03 12:08 update: 2024-02-05, 14:47
Photo PAP/Paweł Supernak
Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, has argued that the Crimean peninsula is a "specific" region and he cannot say if Russian-annexed Crimea would be retaken by Ukraine.
Crimea was seized from Ukraine and annexed by Russia in 2014 in a move not recognised by most other countries.
Talking to the Kanal Zero YouTube channel on Friday, Duda said that he did not know if Ukraine would be able to regain Crimea, as the peninsula was "specific also for historical reasons."
"Because, in fact, if we look at it from a historical point of view, it was under the control of Russia for most of the time," he added.
Vasyl Zvarych, the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, reacted to Duda's statement on the X social media platform on Saturday: "Crimea is Ukraine: It is and will remain so," he wrote, adding that this is based on international law.
"Russia's temporary occupation of Crimea is a war crime for which it will be punished," Zvarych added. "The deoccupation of Crimea is our common task and duty with the free world."
"We will, without a doubt, do this," he continued. "We believe and act together."
Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, also took to the X platform on Saturday morning.
"Poland recognises the independence of Ukraine within its internationally established borders, which have been repeatedly confirmed by the Russian Federation: starting from the treaty of November 19, 1990, through the Budapest Memorandum of December 5, 1994 and the (Russia-Ukraine - PAP) border treaty of January 28, 2003," he wrote.
Pawel Kowal, an MP from the governing Civic Coalition grouping who is to become the government commissioner for the reconstruction of Ukraine, told the RMF FM radio broadcaster on Saturday morning that "stories about Russian Crimea are nonsense... by those who do not know history."
"Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine, which has regional autonomy, which few people know about, enshrined in the Ukrainian constitution. It is very autonomous within Ukraine, it has a separate parliament, a separate government. Historically, this is a place where Crimean Tatars lived," he said.
According to Kowal, anyone who thinks that Crimea is Russian is invited to a historical debate and will surely lose it. "This is simply nonsense spread by Russian propaganda," he added.
Later on Saturday, President Duda took to the X social media platform to write that in the matter of "the brutal Russian aggression against Ukraine, since the very first day, it was and is clear-cut: Russia is breaking international law, is the aggressor and occupier."
"The Russian attack on Ukraine and occupation of the internationally recognised territories of Ukraine, including Crimea, is a crime," he added. "This war cannot end with a Russian victory."
Sikorski, the foreign minister, reacted to Duda's post at a Saturday press conference in Brussels.
"The president clarified his words, and everyone can have a 'slip of the tongue," he told reporters.
Sikorski added that the clarification was "consistent with the government's position" and that the "matter was closed."
"Everyone makes mistakes," he said. "It seems to me that President Duda's sympathy for Ukraine is beyond doubt."
Crimea is a peninsula between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, disputed between Ukraine and Russia. In the years 1991-2014 it was an autonomous republic of independent Ukraine.
According to international law, it belongs to Ukraine. (PAP)
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