Poland has demanded a tough international response to evidence of war crimes committed by Russia against civilians in Ukraine. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says they constitute genocide, and has called for an international commission to investigate them.
In impassioned remarks today, Morawiecki also criticised French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz directly.
“President Macron, how many times have you negotiated with Putin? What have you achieved? Did you stop any of these actions? You do not negotiate with criminals, you fight them. Nobody negotiated with Hitler. Would you negotiate with Hitler, with Stalin, with Pol Pot?” he asked.
“Chancellor Scholz, Olaf. It is not the voices of German businesses, billionaires – who are holding you back from action – that should be heard in Berlin today. It is the voices of innocent women and children, the voices of murdered people who should be heard by all Germans and German politicians,” said Morawiecki.
One of the mass graves in Bucha. We saw civilians’ bodies littered in the streets and dumped behind buildings. Most with gunshot wounds to the head. Some with their hands tied behind their backs. Evidence of war crimes that took place during the Russian occupation of the town. pic.twitter.com/opXA7QtTg9
— Simon Ostrovsky (@SimonOstrovsky) April 3, 2022
Recent Russian withdrawals from around Kyiv have resulted in further evidence emerging of alleged war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. Human Rights Watch, an NGO, announced yesterday that it had “documented several cases of Russian military forces committing laws-of-war violations”, including summary executions and rape.
Since the earliest days of Russia’s invasion, Polish leaders have accused the Kremlin of carrying out war crimes. On 2 March, President Andrzej Duda said that Russian actions “bear the hallmarks of genocide”.
Poland, which has been the primary location for those fleeing Ukraine, has also been helping the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) collect witness testimony from refugees as part of an investigation into war crimes.
In a statement yesterday, Morawiecki said the recent discovery of mass graves in Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv point to crimes that “must be called acts of genocide and be dealt with as such”.
As well as calling for those responsible to be punished, the Polish prime minister called on the European Union to confiscate Russian assets in Western banks and “sever all trade relations with Russia without delay”. We need “SANCTIONS THAT ACTUALLY WORK”, he wrote in capital letters.
Meanwhile, “Ukraine must receive more arms with which it can defend the women and children of Mariupol, Bucha and many other places”, Morawiecki added. “Enough of the false gestures and avoidance tactics.” President Duda last night issued a similar call.
Criminals must be called criminals, brought to justice and sentenced. Pictures from #Bucha disprove the belief that we have to seek a compromise at any cost. In fact, the Defenders of Ukraine need three things above all: weapons, weapons and more weapons. #StandWithUkraine
— Andrzej Duda (@AndrzejDuda) April 3, 2022
In further remarks today, Morawiecki said that there is no longer “any doubt that what we are dealing with is pure evil”, reports Polsat News. “Russia is a totalitarian-fascist state.” He proposed setting up an international commission to investigate its crimes.
As well as addressing Macron and Scholz, the prime minister also criticised Angela Merkel for remaining “silent since the start of the war” despite the fact that Russia was able to build up its military due to the German energy policy she oversaw. And still today, “Germany is the main brake on very strong sanctions”, said Morawiecki.
Other EU countries need to “take the bold step of abandoning Russian oil and gas”, as Poland has pledged to do, said Morawiecki. They will then see that “our economies will flourish”.
Main image credit: Oleksandr Ratushniak/UNDP Ukraine (under CC BY-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
