Andrzej Duda made the declaration at a meeting with the families of the victims of the World War II massacre, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The president told the gathering in Warsaw’s Katyn Museum that the wartime massacre was "perpetrated by the organised apparatus of the Soviet state, of which the current Russian authorities consider themselves to be a continuation.”
'I believe we should go down that route'
“And so there is no doubt that today’s Russia can be called the heir to the Soviet Union, especially when we see the Russian army parading through Moscow’s Red Square under Soviet Union banners today,” he added.
Monday saw the annual military parade take place in Moscow to celebrate Russia's victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.
Duda also said: “And if we can seek any compensation from anyone today, it is from the Russian state, and I believe we should go down that route.”
'Russians have shown their true face'
Referring to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, Duda said: “I’m sorry to say this, but Russia and Russians have shown their true face.”
He added that Russian troops were killing innocent civilians in Ukraine, "as witnessed by the whole world.”
Duda also said it was his “moral and political duty” to "lead another attempt" to persuade international criminal justice institutions "to apportion responsibility for" the 1940 Katyn Massacre of Polish officers and intellectuals.
1940 Katyn Massacre
Almost 22,000 Polish prisoners of war were killed in the spring of 1940 on orders from top Soviet authorities, according to estimates cited by public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.
Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, thousands of Polish officers were deported to camps in the Soviet Union.
POWs from camps in Kozelsk, Starobelsk and Ostashkov as well as Poles held in prisons run by the Soviet Union's NKVD secret police were among those murdered in April 1940.
Moscow for decades denied responsibility for the Katyn Massacre, while the topic was taboo when Poland after the war remained under Soviet control until 1989.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, prezydent.pl