Andrzej Duda turns into the primary overseas chief to handle Ukraine’s parliament for the reason that begin of Russia’s warfare.
Poland’s president has travelled to Kyiv to turn into the primary overseas chief to handle the Ukrainian parliament for the reason that begin of Russia’s warfare on Ukraine.
Ukrainian legislators stood on Sunday to applaud Polish President Andrzej Duda, who thanked them for the honour of talking in a spot the place, he stated, “the center of a free, unbiased and democratic Ukraine beats”, in line with remarks carried by the Polish state-run information company PAP.
“The free world has the face of Ukraine,” Duda advised the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s legislature.
“Regardless of the good destruction, regardless of the horrible crimes, the good struggling that the Ukrainian nation experiences daily, the Russian invaders didn’t break you, they didn’t handle to do it and I imagine deeply that they may by no means succeed,” he stated.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to as the speech by the Polish president a “historic second”.
Poland and Ukraine’s “sturdy” relations had been “constructed via blood, via Russian aggression”, Zelenskyy stated.
Poland has emerged as one in all Ukraine’s foremost allies, changing into a significant gateway for Western humanitarian support and weapons going into the nation, and can be a transit level for some overseas fighters, together with from Belarus, who’ve volunteered to combat in opposition to Russian forces.
Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi underlined the significance of the shock go to by the Polish president, and the importance of Duda changing into the primary head of state to handle Ukraine’s parliament in Kyiv for the reason that Russian invasion was launched in February.
“Not like international locations like Germany and France which have sturdy, historically sturdy enterprise and political ties to Russia, which have tried to strike a much more balanced and sensible diplomatic method when it comes to coping with Russia and Ukraine, all through this battle, Poland has fallen squarely on the aspect of Ukraine,” Basravi stated reporting from Kyiv.
Basravi stated that Poland “is aware of, its leaders know, that if Ukraine falls, then all of a sudden the entrance line turns into the Polish border”.
“And to that impact, the Polish president talking right here, within the capital, had a really clear message for world leaders, for his counterparts in Europe – that there could be no enterprise with Russia after what its forces have finished in locations like Mariupol, Borodyanka, and north of Kyiv within the metropolis of Bucha,” he stated.
Zelenskyy additionally introduced on Sunday that Polish residents in Ukraine might be granted the identical rights that Ukrainian refugees are presently receiving in Poland. Poland has granted the fitting to dwell and work and declare social safety funds to greater than 3 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.