(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the Poles in a lengthy video message on Friday, hailing the “extremely strong union” that has been forged between the two countries following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Posted at 4:49 p.m.
“When you are hurt, it is very important to have someone to lean on. And when the enemy sets foot in your house, someone reaches out to you. On the morning of February 24, I had no doubts who would say to me, ‘Brother, you will not find yourself alone against the enemy’,” the Ukrainian president said in his message to President Andrzej Duda, to Parliament and to the Polish people.
“And that’s exactly what happened. And I’m grateful for that. Our Polish brothers and sisters are with us”, he stressed, recalling that Poland currently hosts “more than one and a half million Ukrainian citizens, the absolute majority of whom are women and children”.
These refugees “do not feel like visitors. You welcomed them into your families with tenderness, fraternal kindness”, he underlines, recalling that bilateral relations were conversely “fresh” before his accession to the Ukrainian presidency in 2019.
A “peace between brothers” unites the two countries, he stressed, saying “wish these words would be heard by our neighbors, the people of Belarus”, an ally of Russia.
“Together we are 90 million inhabitants […] It is a historic mission for Poland and Ukraine to be the leaders who tomorrow will lift Europe out of this abyss, save it from this threat, prevent Europe from becoming a victim,” he added. he concluded.
Poland offered earlier this week to deliver its Mig-29 jets to the US military and then hand them over to Ukraine, an offer rejected by Washington, which deemed it likely to provoke a Russian escalation.