The resolution was adopted by the Sejm, the lower house of Poland's parliament, in a 231-2 vote, with one abstention, on Wednesday night, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
A total of 226 lawmakers, mainly those from the opposition, did not take part in the vote, according to public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.
Earlier, the Sejm amended the draft to mention the 2010 Smolensk air disaster, in which a Polish plane carrying President Lech Kaczyński, his wife and 94 others, including top political and military figures, crashed near Smolensk, western Russia, killing all those on board.
Russia 'supports terrorism and employs means of terror'
Wednesday’s resolution says: “The Sejm of the Republic of Poland designates the Russian Federation as a state that supports terrorism and employs the means of terror.”
MPs stated that Russia “systematically violates human rights, international law as well as the Charter of the United Nations and many other commitments,” “carries out annexations of other countries’ territory, armed invasions, war crimes and genocide,” and “takes hostile economic action, especially in the field of energy.”
The resolution also says that Russia is “directly responsible for the shooting down of a Malaysian airlines plane (Flight MH17) in July 2014, where 298 passengers and crew members were killed,” as well as for “the crash of the Polish air force plane (Flight 101) in Smolensk in April 2010, which killed 96 people onboard, including President Lech Kaczyński, Polish government officials, high-ranking Polish Army and NATO commanders and members of the Polish parliament.”
Russia’s brutal and illegal war on Ukraine
The resolution goes on to say that Russia’s "brutal and illegal aggression against Ukraine continues. Throughout the territory of the invaded country, Russian forces are conducting attacks in which thousands of people, including many children, have died.”
It adds: “The Russian Federation and its subordinate organisations and military units are committing acts of terror against civilian infrastructure, carrying out mass executions, committing abductions, sexual violence and torture, taking children away from their families to subject them to Russification, carrying out mass deportations of people, forced conscription of Ukrainian citizens into the Russian armed forces, and theft of property. Russia routinely violates the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war.”
Polish MPs also said that Russia committed an act of international piracy by “blocking Ukrainian seaports with military force and by paralysing maritime traffic on routes leading to these ports, without a declaration of war.”
Moreover, “by burning and looting Ukrainian land, by preventing Ukraine for a prolonged period from exporting its crops, it has brought the spectre of hunger to many countries in Africa and Asia,” the resolution said.
Polish MPs also said that Russia's aggression against Ukraine represented “a gross breach” of the prohibition of the use of force, enshrined in the UN Charter, as well as “a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity.”
Russia 'should be isolated’
The Polish lower house expressed support for "an independent and sovereign Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders," welcomed a recent resolution by Poland’s upper house, the Senate, declaring Russia "a terrorist regime" and last month’s declaration by the European Parliament calling Russia "a state sponsor of terrorism."
Polish MPs also urged the European Union’s executive Commission, other EU institutions and all UN member states to adopt the same stance and take action to contain Russian aggression and punish Moscow, the IAR news agency reported.
“The Russian Federation should be isolated on the international stage,” the Polish lower house stressed in its resolution.
The MPs called on the Polish government to continue and expand efforts to impose successive packages of sanctions on Russia and individuals who support Putin’s regime, as well as to provide further support to Ukraine as it battles Russia's invasion, officials said.
The Polish parliamentary resolution also urged the international community to develop a mechanism for the disbursement of war reparations to Ukraine, and compensation to countries, organisations and individuals who have incurred losses in connection with the war, the IAR news agency reported.
Thursday is day 295 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, sejm.gov.pl