Poland and Ukraine will 'stand together': Zelenskyy

“Poland knows very well that should someone attack it, Poland and Ukraine will stand together,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a press briefing for Poland’s Press Agency (PAP) and six other Polish media outlets in Kyiv, adding that “we are strong in Europe — in Europe where we are together.”

The Ukrainian official spoke of the profound need to unite in the face of Russian aggression. Europe requires unity and partnership so that even the small Baltic countries can feel safe in the face of danger, he said.

President Zelenskyy also expressed gratitude to Poland and Poles for the support provided to his country and the Ukrainian people. He also thanked his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda and the First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda for their backing.

The Poles, President Zelenskyy said, were making the Ukrainians feel at home, but he added that the refugees were “only guests” for the time being and would return home after the war concluded.

“Only at home we can feel ‘at home’. Still, Poles are doing everything so that Ukrainians may feel that way in Poland,” he stressed.

Hungarians clueless of the Russian threat

Turning to the question of Hungary’s stance on the Russian invasion of Ukrainian, the Ukrainian president felt that Hungarians seemed to fail to comprehend the threat posed by Russia. He went on to say that perhaps Hungarians will “sooner or later have to defend themselves.” President Zelenskyy noted that according to his knowledge a staggering number of Russian media continued to operate in Hungary and numerous other European countries. The gist of the issue was, he claimed, that those countries’ leaders were not fighting with the Russian media, hence the outlets’ influence on the society polarising the nations from the inside.

The official felt that many European states still had not understood either what Russia was doing or that Moscow was the aggressor. He went on to say that Russia’s warfare was exceptionally methodical and cynical, also during peace talks. President Zelenskyy said that in the end, the sole decision-maker on the Russian side was Russia’s strongman Vladimir Putin. Regardless of this obstacle, President Zelenskyy stressed that talks were necessary and holding a dialogue was his duty as Ukraine’s leader.

Justice over personal vengeance

The official found Russia’s systemic killing of Ukrainians “taking place according to the same patterns in various localities of” Ukraine emblematic of Moscow’s methodical warfare. He went on to say that “the only thing that Russia achieved with the crime perpetrated in Bucha is the unification of the Ukrainian nation.”

Talking of the Ukrainian society’s lust for revenge triggered by the crimes perpetrated by Russia in Bucha and the city of Mariupol, the official stressed that Ukrainians lost entire families in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s head of state gave priority over personal vengeance to bringing justice to the aggressor, saying that proving Russia’s crimes before international courts was necessary so that such tragedies may never happen again.

The president also mentioned the threat Russia posed to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.

President Zelenskyy went on to stress that one of the conclusions stemming from the war in Ukraine was the need to obtain security guarantees for his country.