Mateusz Morawiecki made the appeal in a speech to lawmakers in the lower house of Poland's parliament on Thursday, the state PAP news agency reported.
He said that crimes perpetrated by Russian forces in Ukraine “seemed unthinkable just two months ago.”
Morawiecki told parliament that civilian killings committed by Russian troops in Ukrainian towns such as Bucha added up to “the contemporary map of genocide in Europe.”
‘Everyone must acknowledge Russia’s crimes in Ukraine’
Morawiecki said: “We must talk sense into everyone in Western Europe, and Eastern Europe too, especially in Hungary, to persuade them that what is going on in Ukraine is absolutely unacceptable.”
He was referring to Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban who recently named Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as one of his “opponents.”
The Polish prime minister added: “If someone today doesn’t notice the crimes in Ukraine, doesn’t call them what they are, then they are making a gigantic mistake. This mistake must be corrected as soon as possible.”
“We won’t accept such stances, whether it is our western neighbour or southern neighbour, whether it’s Hungary or France or any politician in France, Germany, Hungary, Austria or elsewhere,” he told the house, as quoted by the PAP news agency.
International commission
Morawiecki reiterated his call for an international commission to look into Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine.
“Our job is to re-establish peace, but also to make sure that justice is restored,” he told parliament.
“That is why Poland is urging the creation of an international commission to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine,” he emphasised.
Morawiecki said Russia was employing “Soviet methods,” such as “shooting people in the back of their heads,” and “breaking the Geneva conventions in their treatment of prisoners, civilians, women, children.”
“What Russia is doing in Ukraine defies imagination,” he concluded.
Thursday was day 43 of the Russian assault on Ukraine.
Poland on Thursday reported it had welcomed nearly 2.55 million refugees fleeing Russia's war against Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP