Elżbieta Witek made the declaration at a joint media briefing with Ukraine’s parliamentary Speaker Olena Kondratyuk on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The pair summed up a two-day meeting of top women lawmakers from across Europe, hosted by Witek earlier this week.
Humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine
Witek, who leads Poland’s Sejm lower house of parliament, told reporters: “Today, Ukrainians aren’t just fighting for their own freedom. They are fighting for the freedom of all of us.”
She added: “And so we feel strongly obliged to help Ukraine in every way - by providing humanitarian aid, but also military aid to help put an end to this war."
Witek called for continued supplies of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine “so that the excellent, exceptionally heroic Ukrainian army can effectively defend Ukraine and Europe.”
‘We need solidarity from EU’
Both Witek and Kondratyuk urged the European Union to provide funding to help Poland cope with a wave of almost 3 million refugees from the war-torn eastern neighbour.
“Today, we need solidarity,” said Witek.
Women in war
She told reporters that the two-day summit of top female lawmakers explored the role and needs of women caught up in the war.
She noted that some Ukrainian women were “defending their country, weapons in hand,” while others were “heroically looking after their children, their loved ones.”
Witek said each EU country should outline its range of services to Ukrainian women fleeing the war “to help them decide where to travel next, or whether to stay in Poland.”
She also stressed the need for psychological support for Ukrainian women and children as “they have experienced a big trauma.”
'War crimes must be punished'
Meanwhile, Kondratyuk called on all parliaments to support the creation of a tribunal “to justly punish everyone," including Russian President Vladimir Putin, "for their war crimes” committed in Ukraine.
She also appealed for “further weapons deliveries” and for her country to be “swiftly admitted to the EU.”
Top female parliamentarians meet in Poland
The two-day get-together in Poland this week featured top women lawmakers from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Spain.
Also present was the vice-president of the European Parliament, Heidi Hautala.
Besides holding talks in Poland’s parliament, participants visited a Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in Dorohusk, as well as refugee support centres in the eastern city of Chełm and in Nadarzyn near the capital Warsaw, according to officials.
Thursday was day 57 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Poland on Thursday reported it had welcomed nearly 2.89 million refugees fleeing Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP