“Crimea is Ukraine,” says Polish president, condemning Russia’s “illegal annexation”

Polish President Andrzej Duda has declared that Crimea is part of Ukraine and assured that his country is not indifferent to the suffering caused by Russia’s annexation of the peninsula and will support efforts to reverse it.

The president was speaking in Kyiv at the inaugural Crimea Platform summit, a diplomatic initiative of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, created to discuss the situation in the peninsula, which the Russian Federation annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

“Crimea is Ukraine…We do not accept any other narrative,” Duda said in his remarks, which he began by speaking in Ukrainian, to applause from the audience.

“I firmly believe that the decisions we make today will contribute to consolidating the conviction in the international community about the need for lasting, consistent action to overturn the consequences of the illegal annexation,” he added at the summit, which is being attended by 13 heads of state and the president of the European Council

The words “occupation” and “annexation” had been heard many times before in Poland, Duda said, and Poles know all too well what it meant to be abandoned by allies in their moment of need, as they were after the Second World War.

Duda promised solidarity – another word that he said has particular power in Poland – with the Ukrainian nation as well as the Tatars, who face discrimination and persecution from the Russian authorities in Crimea.

“We know very well the feelings of a person who loses their possessions and dignity, who faces attempts to deny their national identity, who are told ‘this is not your country’,” the president said. “That is why I tell our Ukrainian brothers clearly: Poles understand your situation, feelings, suffering; you can count on our support.”

Duda said the meeting was an opportunity for attendees to make it clear that they were not indifferent to the Crimea situation and would not ignore “evident breach of international law and destruction of Ukraine’s territorial integrity”.

“Unlawful arrests, deportations, cases of disappearances, of torture, inhuman treatment, intimidation, expropriation, discrimination based on nationality, origin or religion have become an element of the daily lives of Crimea’s residents,” he added.

Last autumn, during a previous visit by Duda to Kyiv, he and Zelensky signed a joint declaration condemning the occupation of Crimea, promoting economic cooperation between their two countries, and seeking to calm tensions over Second World War history.

Poland has also supported Ukraine’s ambitions to more closely integrate with the West. Today, the two presidents published a joint text in France’s Le Figaro newspaper declaring that “Ukraine’s place is in the European Union”. The same article will tomorrow appear in Germany’s Die Welt.

At today’s summit, Zelensky admitted that Ukraine would never be able to regain control of Crimea on its own, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP). This was the first time its occupation was being discussed at the highest international level, he noted.

Russia has tripled its military presence since the annexation, Zelensky added, and human rights and freedoms are being systematically breached. With the support of Ukraine’s allies, his ultimate goal was “deoccupation” of the peninsula, he declared.

Moscow, which argues that it legitimately annexed Crimea following a referendum, described the Crimea Platform as “an anti-Russian event”, reports TASS, the Russian state news agency.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called it “a coven where the west will continue to groom neo-Nazi and racist attitudes of the current Ukrainian authorities”.

Main image credit: Jakub Szymczyk/KPRP/Prezydent.pl

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.