Polish president criticised for doubting Ukraine can retake Crimea

03 February 2024 15:47

Poland's president said he was unsure if Ukraine would be able to regain control over Russian-occupied Crimea but believed it could retake Donetsk and Luhansk, in comments that drew criticism from politicians in the governing coalition.

Warsaw has been one of Kyiv's staunchest supporters since Russia invaded the country in 2022 and has said Ukraine must regain control over all of its territory in order to deter Moscow from further aggression.

President Andrzej Duda reiterated this position during an interview on the YouTube channel Kanal Zero late on February 2, according to Reuters.

However, when asked if he believed Ukraine would really be able to retake Crimea, he said, "It is hard for me to answer that question.

"I don't know if (Ukraine) will regain Crimea, but I believe it will regain Donetsk and Luhansk," he said.

He said the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion, "is a special place... also for historical reasons. Because in fact, if we look historically, it was in Russia's hands for most of the time."

Duda's remarks were criticised by other lawmakers from Poland's ruling pro-European coalition, who are in a different political camp to the president.

The president is an ally of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party which lost power in December after failing to build a coalition following the loss of its majority in an October election.

"I would like to remind Mr Duda that there are cities in our country that in their history belonged to Poland for a shorter time than to another country," Roman Giertych, a lawmaker from the largest grouping in the government, Civic Coalition (KO), wrote on social media platform X.

"What an incredibly stupid statement!"

PiS lawmaker Radoslaw Fogiel said such criticism of Duda's words was unfounded. "He answered directly to the question about Ukraine regaining Crimea by saying that he didn't know," Fogiel wrote on X.

Caliber.Az

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