“It’s hard to deny, of course,” Duda told CNN’s Dana Bach in an exclusive interview in Warsaw. “This is a crime that fulfills the hallmarks of genocide, especially if you look at the context of the various conversations that are taking place.” , Poland.
Duda said Russian propaganda about Moscow’s goal of “dishonoring” Ukraine showed that the country was looking for a false pretext “in order to commit a massacre”.
“The fact that the civilian population of Ukraine is being killed shows best what the goal is. [the] He said through an interpreter: “The Russian invasion is ‘the aim of this invasion is simply the annihilation of the Ukrainian nation’.”
Duda, who was first elected president of Poland in 2015 and has served through three US administrations, leads the country as it plays a key role in supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, struggles with the influx of Ukrainian refugees, pushes for more sanctions on Russia and supplies Ukraine with weapons.
Millions of Ukrainians fled across the country’s borders to Poland. As a member of NATO, Poland was one of the countries where US and NATO forces were deployed to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank as a deterrent to Russia.
There were some challenges, too. Ukraine has sought Polish MiG-29 fighter jets to aid in its fight against Russia, but efforts to move the planes to Ukraine collapsed after Poland publicly suggested supplying them to the United States through a German air base for shipment to Ukraine. The United States said such a plan was futile, and the planes were not sent.
In the interview, Duda questioned the usefulness of diplomatic efforts with Russia at this point in the conflict. He said he was not surprised by the criticism this week by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of French President Emmanuel Macron, when Morawiecki said, “No one negotiated with Hitler.”
“Dialogue with Russia is meaningless,” Duda said. “One has to offer very difficult conditions to Vladimir Putin. One has to say, ‘Unless you meet these conditions, we have nothing to talk about.’ This is just a game to buy time by Russia.”
As part of these terms, Duda called for additional sanctions on Russia and its energy sector, bemoaning Europe’s dependence on Russian energy that has persisted even as crippling sanctions are imposed in other sectors.
“The sanctions regime should be strengthened,” Duda said. “I have absolutely no doubts about that.” “This is of course a very complex task … but the problem is that for some countries, this is fundamental to them.”
Duda noted that Poland opposed the construction of gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, saying that they were “political projects” aimed at bypassing Poland and the Baltic states. He called for the dismantling of the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
“Russia is blackmailing not only Germany, but, in fact, the whole of Europe,” said Duda. “The fact that we say that it is impossible to impose a ban on Russian gas, it is not possible to immediately impose a ban on Russian oil,” he added.
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