Speaking at the inaugural Crimean Platform summit in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Duda began his address in Ukrainian, much to the ovation of the crowd.
"We in Poland know full well how it feels to lose your property, lose your dignity, to have others try and strip you of your own national identity, telling you it is not your country anymore," he said.
'You can count on our support'
He added: "This is why I am standing here before you today to spell it out to our Ukrainian brothers: Polish people understand your situation, your feelings, your suffering, you can count on our support."
Duda told his audience that the concept of solidarity had "special resonance" in Poland and that "today Ukraine dearly needs international solidarity."
He added the Kyiv summit was "precisely the occasion to express such solidarity with the Ukrainian and Tatar nations" and "also to communicate to the world that we are not approving the illegal occupation and annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and the city of Sevastopol, by the Russian Federation."
The Polish president reflected that it hurt "to be abandoned by one's allies in the hour of need," as he said Poland discovered in 1945 when its partners left the country in Josef Stalin's grip, "behind the Iron Curtain."
'We are not indifferent'
"And so today's meeting," he went on, "is also an opportunity for us to say clearly that we are not indifferent to the issue of the Crimea, and none of us assembled here will stand by as international law is clearly being breached and Ukraine's territorial integrity destroyed."
"Nor will we look with indifference at the great human tragedies which are taking place in the peninsula," Duda stressed.
He noted the Crimea was rife with illegal detentions, deportations and torture, with the local Tatars and human-rights activists singled out for special persecution.
Polish President Andrzej Duda attends the Crimean Platform summit in Kyiv, Ukraine on Monday. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
The Polish head of state also told the Crimean Platform gathering that the Ukrainian and Tatar-Crimean languages were "being marginalised," while religious communities, including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, "have been designated as extremist movements."
Moreover, the peninsula is being militarised and its youth "targeted with war propaganda," with illegal elections and conscription held periodically, the Polish president said.
'The Crimea is Ukraine'
Duda said he hoped the summit would help convince the international community "that action must be taken to reverse the effects of Russia's illegal capture" of the Crimea.
"I am confident that we are going to succeed," he said. "Let me assure you, Poland will be an active participant in the Crimean Platform—the Crimea is Ukraine."
"Long live Ukraine," the Polish president concluded.
Duda is visiting Ukraine as the country celebrates 30 years of independence from the Soviet Union.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, prezydent.pl