Andrzej Duda sparked row after saying he was unsure if Kyiv could regain control of Russian-occupied Crimea

Andrzej Duda sparked row after saying he was unsure if Kyiv could regain control of Russian-occupied Crimea

Poland’s president has declared he has always been unwavering in his support for Ukraine after being criticised for saying he was unsure whether Kyiv would be able to regain control of Crimea.

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.

Andrzej Duda reiterated this position during an interview on the YouTube channel Kanał Zero on Friday. 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.”

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    2•10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    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.

    Parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine were also taken by Moscow-backed forces in 2014 and have been embattled during the course of the current war, unlike Crimea.

    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.

    On Saturday, Duda sought to defuse the row, saying in a post on X that his “actions and position on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine have been and are clear from day one”.

    The strike is the latest in a recent series of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Russian oil facilities, infrastructure that Kyiv sees as important for the Kremlin’s war effort.

    Russia has been conducting regular long-range missile strikes on targets in Ukraine since the beginning of its invasion, prompting Kyiv to find a way to close the gap on Moscow’s more advanced military technology.

    The original article contains 618 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!