I translated the full speech of Polish President Andrzej Duda in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
"Volodymyr!
Dear friends!
How can I speak now, when emotion blocks my larynx?
Thank you with all my heart,
Volodymyr!
Thank you on behalf of Rzeszów, on behalf of its residents, thank you on behalf of Podkarpacie, the entire Polish border region with Ukraine, the residents of this region, thank you on behalf of all Poles. Thank you so much for your wonderful words. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Honestly, Ukraine, its fame and glory, and its will,
so happy are we, brother Ukrainians.
Poland is not yet dead,
while we live,
what foreign violence has taken from us,
we will take back with a sword.
Dear Mr. President, Dear Friend, Volodymyr,
Dear Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
All Dear Guests,
Dear Ukrainian friends!
Today I am in beautiful, proud Kiev, in the capital of free, independent, democratic Ukraine, which for almost 90 days has put up heroic resistance to barbaric aggression. I was also here on February 23, just hours before the Russian invasion began. I was there to support Ukraine and its people at an extremely difficult time and to assure them that Poland would never leave Ukraine alone.
I was also here just over a month ago with the Presidents of the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, tried friends of your country, to talk about concrete help for you.
But during that visit to Kiev in the first half of April, I was also in Borodzianka and Irpin. I saw with my own eyes the traces of crimes. I saw the enormity of human misery. I saw suffering, I saw pain, I saw destroyed houses. I saw the unimaginable tragedy of your nation. I know what terrible deeds the barbarian invaders committed in Bucza and other places.
They must answer for this before national tribunals! This is a necessary thing if the world is really to be a just world! If the world is truly to be a free world!
But despite the great destruction, despite the terrible crimes, despite the great suffering that the Ukrainian people experience every day, the Russian invaders have not broken you. They did not succeed in doing so. I believe deeply that they will never succeed.
And I want to say it forcefully: the free world today has the face of Ukraine!
As President of the Republic of Poland, I have the honor to speak before you - representatives of the Ukrainian people - in the Ukrainian Parliament, in the place where the heart of free, independent and democratic Ukraine beats. This is a great privilege and honor. I treat this as a great gesture of friendship towards Poland and the Poles, and I thank you for it from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, my friends.
Most Honourable Deputies,
All Distinguished Guests,
but first of all Volodymyr,
Honourable President,
Mr. President!
The moment of history makes Ukraine and Poland have an incredible political opportunity as two closely related nations of the same part of Europe.
Mr. President, Volodymyr!
You said yourself that there are more than 80 million of us together and that we are stronger together. We must not waste this opportunity.
Dear Ukrainian friends!
I would like you to know that your loved ones - wives, parents, children, grandchildren, those millions of people who had to leave Ukraine, including Poland, to escape the tragedy of war - are not refugees in our country today. They are our guests.
I assure you that while you are fighting so bravely to defend the independence of your country, they are safe in their Polish homes. And they will safely be able to return to their homeland after you defeat the Russian occupier. I believe deeply that this is what will happen.
It is a peculiar paradox that such great evil done in Ukraine by the invaders has released such great good on the other side. I believe that this goodness, these friendships established between millions of Poles and Ukrainians, will make us good neighbors forever. This is a great historical opportunity and a great historical breakthrough.
Mr President, Volodymyr!
Mr. President, Mr. Chairman!
Verkhovna Rada!
I stand before the august Supreme Council as the President of Poland to thank you - I emphasise: I stand to thank you. Until now you have been thanking us. You say that Poland has opened its border to 3.5 million Ukrainian refugees and has become home to over 2 million of them. This is true.
You say that Poland has given Ukraine a huge number of tanks, armored personnel carriers, rocket launchers, weapons, ammunition - almost $2 billion worth, that it keeps telling others that Ukraine must have the support of the free world. This is true.
That Poland has been carrying aid and has not been frightened by Russian, Moscow threats. That's also true. You say that Poland opened its border and gave Ukrainians the same rights that Poles have and admitted your children to schools. And that is also tru
However, we are not the heroes. You are the heroes.
I say this with pride, because Poland supported Ukraine, because we believed in you and we still believe in you. Many months before the outbreak of war, I was convinced that Ukraine would offer effective resistance to Russia; that it would be like the hero in the poem by the great Ivan Franko, like "the spirit of szczo tiło rwe do bojju, rwe za postup, szczastiaj woliu".
Thank you today for defending Europe from the onslaught of barbarism and new Russian imperialism; for showing tyrants their place; for proving that the spirit of a free people is stronger! Thank you for this from the bottom of my heart. You have shown, Ukraine, that you are - as your anthem says - of Cossack stock. You are great!
I turn to your soldiers - to the Ukrainian soldiers who are fighting in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, the Territorial Defense units, to the heroic defenders of Mariupol, including those who are now in Russian captivity, and to those who are putting up fierce resistance to the invaders all along the front line.
You are the heroes of Ukraine. But you are also heroes of Poland, of Europe and of the entire world.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Accept our great respect. Great! From the bottom of my heart, on behalf of the Polish nation, I thank you for your resistance, for your sacrifice, for your courage, for your love of freedom and your homeland. It will be the source of your victory. We believe in it deeply.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Our enemies have repeatedly tried to divide us and turn us against each other. Today they are also trying to do the same, by scaring Poles with Ukrainians and Ukrainians with Poles. They use painful topics from our mutual past, from our history. But they will not succeed! We know these methods too well. We know that tensions in Polish-Ukrainian relations serve only foreign interests. And they harm us, Poles and Ukrainians!
Our two nations have a long history. A wonderful history, but at many points also a very difficult one.
We made many mistakes, for which we paid a high price.
Pope John Paul II, the great advocate of peace and Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation, spoke of this in Ukraine, in Lvov. Let me recall his memorable words:
"May, thanks to the purification of historical memory, all be ready to place higher what unites than what divides, so that together they may build a future based on mutual respect, on fraternal communion, fraternal cooperation and authentic solidarity." So said John Paul II in Lviv.
Today, more than ever, we realize this message together. And we must continue to carry it out on the basis of truth and mutual respect. During my last visit to the Vatican, not so long ago, I laid two wreaths on the tomb of St. John Paul II: one white-red and one blue-yellow. And I prayed together with my wife, with our colleagues, with the Poles who happened to be in St. Peter's Basilica, but also with the Ukrainians present there, for a free, independent, sovereign Ukraine, which will live in friendship with a free, sovereign and independent Poland, for happiness and mutual cooperation between our countries and nations, for all of us, for your families; for peace and friendship, for a safe future.
Dear friends!
It is for a safe future that the Ukrainian people have been heroically fighting against the Russian invaders for three months now. Many countries, many experts, the world media predicted that this would be Russia's quick and victorious war, that Kiev would fall in three days. But they could not have been more wrong. It did not fall in three, nor in 33, nor in 53, nor in 83 days! And it will not fall! It will not fall! I have no doubt about that!
And when almost everyone, convinced that Kiev was going to fall, evacuated their embassies, the Polish Ambassador Bartosz Cichocki stayed in Kiev. He was here with you during the bombing and during the attack on Kiev, and he is here with me. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for representing the Republic of Poland with dignity where it is most needed. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Ladies and Gentlemen!
The victorious battle for Kyiv, the victorious battle for Kharkiv, the heroic defence of Mariupol are now forever written in the pages of history. Nobody can erase this. Ukraine has shown the whole world that it is able to stand up to imperial Russia. Nobody believed in it, but it happened and is happening! Russia has not fully realized any of its strategic goals. It has suffered huge losses and is suffering them all the time. This is a great success of the Ukrainian state, this is a great success of the Ukrainian armed forces, this is a great success of the Ukrainian authorities - this is your great success, of the whole nation!
The Western world has united around Ukraine. Much credit for this goes to the United States and the leadership from President Joe Biden. In a situation of real danger, it is confirmed that strong American leadership is still needed by the world. Kiev is a place from which it is clear that we need more America in Europe - both militarily and economically.
Unfortunately, there have also been and are also recent disturbing voices in Europe for Ukraine to give in to Putin's demands. I want to make it clear: only Ukraine has the right to decide its future.
Only Ukraine has the right to decide for itself!
The world, the international community should demand Russia to stop its aggression, to withdraw completely from the territory of Ukraine, to stop violating international law. There is no question of any negotiating and deciding over the head of Ukraine! Nothing about you without you! Absolutely! This is an iron rule! It must be obeyed!
Today, it is not you, it is the Western world that is taking a test of credibility, of whether its values really mean anything. If Ukraine, even an inch of its territory and a piece of sovereignty is sacrificed for the sake of peace, economic interests or political ambitions, it will be a huge blow not only to the Ukrainian nation but to the entire Western community. I have no doubt about this!
It is time and your future that will show whether the foundations of the Western world, values such as democracy, human rights, and solidarity, only sound beautiful but, when confronted with brutal reality, mean nothing, or whether they really mean something. We must not allow them to become empty words. We must not allow that to happen. This is the great responsibility of the West towards Ukraine. It is a great responsibility of the international community towards your people and your country. I have no doubts about this.
After Bucza, Borodzianka, after Mariupol there can be no return to business as usual with Russia, Dear Presidents and Gentlemen, Dear Prime Ministers, Dear Members of Parliaments around the world!
There can be no return to business as usual! The honest world cannot do so by passing over crime, over aggression, over violation of basic principles.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
As Poland, we have long warned Europe against the imperial aspirations of Russia and Putin. We have been warning Europe for a long time against the imperial aspirations of Russia and Putin. Against dependence on Russian energy sources. We said that this is in fact a weapon that can be used against Europe, against nations. We said... Unfortunately, we were not listened to. Our warnings were downplayed. We were accused of Russophobia.
Today, the world quietly admits that we were right, but - believe me - this is an extremely bitter satisfaction.
The late President Lech Kaczyński spoke about the threat from Russia many times. My professor, my teacher, my president and a great friend of Ukraine. I saw from close up how he fought for Ukraine and Georgia to be admitted to the North Atlantic Alliance.
It is now 14 years since the Bucharest summit, where those historic decisions could have been made, giving Ukraine a blueprint for NATO membership. If President Lech Kaczynski had been listened to then, the aggression of 2014 probably would not have happened, there would not be the current war, there would not have been the massive destruction and human suffering. History would have turned out differently.
This should be a great remorse for some European leaders. That is why it is so important today not to repeat the same fatal mistakes that have led to so many misfortunes. We must never allow this to happen.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Dear Friends!
Poland supports Ukraine and will continue to do so. I personally will not rest until Ukraine becomes a member of the European Union in the full sense of the word. It is my great desire and dream - both as the President of the Republic of Poland and simply as a man - that we can build a common future together. After all, it is very important not only for us, but above all for the next generations, for our children, for our grandchildren - what our part of Europe will be like in the future, how people will be able to live here. I believe that as free, happy, self-governing people, those who build the future, develop, can realize their ambitions. I believe in it deeply.
Let me remind you that Poland was the first country to recognise Ukraine's independence, in 1991. In 1992, our first presidents of the then fully independent countries signed the Treaty on Good Cooperation and Mutual Neighbourhood. But today I think it is safe to say that the historical moment is shaping our relations anew. These are the facts that I have been talking about and that I don't think anyone can deny.
Today the time has come, in my deep conviction, for a new Polish-Ukrainian treaty on good neighbourhood, for a treaty that will take into account all that we have built together in our relations, if only in recent months.
The current war has also shown how inadequate the network of road, rail, and infrastructure links connecting our countries is. It is time to make up for this backwardness. The Polish-Ukrainian border should unite, not divide. This should be our great goal at this time. Let one of the lasting signs of our relations be a fast railroad that will connect Kiev with Warsaw. We will build it together. I believe that we will be able to do it already in the coming years.
As I assured you a moment ago, we, as Poland, will actively support Ukraine on its way to membership of the European Union, now as a candidate. With all our might, Mr President! But also to EU membership, as I said, in the full sense of the word. Because the place of a free and democratic Ukraine is in a united Europe. I know it well, but most of all you know it well. And I deeply believe that this will be the decision of your society, the Ukrainian people, in the future. That this is the decision the Ukrainian people will make. That this is what they will say when the time comes.
I believe that together we will try to bring that time as close as possible. Personally, I am also very keen for Ukraine to join the Tri-Mora Initiative, which brings together the countries of our region, members of the European Union. This initiative will certainly be much stronger with Ukraine.
We want to support our energy independence, and also to take an active part in rebuilding your homeland from war damage.
Special funds are needed, funds for reconstruction. I will talk about this already in the coming days with world leaders at the Davos summit.
But let us remember that Ukraine must be rebuilt first of all at the expense of the aggressor - such are the requirements of historical justice.
At the expense of the Russian Federation, which attacked Ukraine, and which is now demolishing Ukrainian houses, destroying Ukrainian industry, taking away Ukrainian crops and killing Ukrainian people. It should be rebuilt primarily from war reparations. The Russian currency reserves frozen today in Western banks should be used for this purpose first, and they are huge. Enormous!
It was Russia that ruined Ukraine and it is Russia that must pay for it. I have no doubt about that. And I believe no honest person in the world has any doubts about it either. It is clear who is the aggressor and who has been attacked and whose land is being destroyed.
Dear Friends!
During our talks with Volodymyr, with your President, we often mentioned the Polish-Ukrainian EURO 2012. Someone will laugh, or perhaps be outraged that I am talking about this today, here in the Verkhovna Rada. But recall those joyful days. Remember that great action, those huge investments that we made back then. The joy that was poured into our societies that we succeeded. And that together we completed a great project.
I firmly believe, Dear Friends, that there will be many more such projects ahead of us, that we will carry out great European and world projects together, including sports, but also others.
Ukraine will win the war, overcome difficulties and will be rebuilt even more beautifully than it was before the Russian aggression. I am sure of it.
Long live free, sovereign, independent Ukraine!
Long live Poland!"
„Niemy krzyk”– dzień 732.
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A cloyingly glowing steak of nonsense.(Ckliwo łechtliwy stek bzdur.)
And this passage tells me that defacto we are already a party to the war. For now, our rulers still have their positions to lose. But when they get assurances from the principals that they don't have to worry about anything then they will declare war on Russia:
Mr. President, Volodymyr!
You said yourself that there are more than 80 million of us together and that we are stronger together. We must not waste this opportunity.
t.me
Croatian MEP has publicly proposed the EU to impose sanctions against the US and Saudi Arabia.
Kherson region does not plan to be a separate independent republic, the goal is to become a part of the Russian Federation - Deputy Head of the Regional Administration Stremousov
