Andrzej Duda’s words came after he attended a meeting of Poland’s National Security Council to discuss the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the state PAP news agency reported.
After the three-hour gathering in the presidential palace in Warsaw, the Polish head of state told reporters that the international situation was “the most singular since 1989,” amid “enormous movements" of Russian troops.
“We are a member of NATO and the European Union, a direct neighbour of Ukraine and Belarus,” Duda said.
“The security, sovereignty and freedom of Ukraine, and likewise of Belarus, are important, strategic issues for us,” he added.
'Extremely constructive atmosphere'
Duda thanked all those who took part in the National Security Council meeting, including government officials and politicians.
“Above all, I thank you for the extremely constructive atmosphere of this meeting,” he said, adding that "everyone had an input" into the session.
He told reporters that he and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as well as Cabinet ministers "briefed representatives of the parliamentary caucuses on the current international situation around Ukraine, as well as in Belarus, from the standpoint of Poland's security."
He also said he was pleased that all the political groups represented at the meeting “are aware of this shared responsibility for Poland in this very precarious international situation.”
‘No direct, military threat to Poland’
Earlier, in his introductory remarks at the National Security Council meeting, Duda said that the international situation was “the most unprecedented since 1989,” but stated that “at the moment, there is no significant, direct, military threat to Poland.”
Meanwhile, Tomasz Siemoniak, one of the leaders of the opposition Civic Coalition grouping and a former defence minister, told reporters after the session that he believed Poland was safe thanks to being a member of NATO.
“I am convinced that Poland is safe, just as we were safe in 2014 thanks to guarantees from the United States and NATO,” Siemoniak said, referring to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
He voiced hope that Russia would not attack Ukraine again.
The leader of the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL), Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said that “cooperation within the National Security Council between various political groups, the president and the government, in the face of the threat to Ukraine, is in Poland’s national interests,” the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP