Polish president accuses Russia of genocide
Polish President Andrzej Duda has described Russian attacks on Ukraine as genocide.
In an address to the National Assembly, both houses of the Polish parliament, on Friday, Andrzej Duda spoke about the "heroic resistance" of the Ukrainian army and people against the Russian invaders.
He said that they "set an example for the whole world of what true courage and love for the common values, freedom, sovereignty and democracy are."
"They are paying the highest possible price for it - Ukrainian cities are being bombed, apartment houses, blocks of flats, schools and hospitals are being attacked. The attacks by the Russian invaders bear signs of genocide," he said.
Duda also said that the world must do everything to make the Russian invadors answer for their actions in Ukraine before international tribunals.
"This is a matter of the dignity of the international community," he said.
According to Duda, by starting the war, Vladimir Putin drew upon the direct heritage of the Soviet Union, the "evil empire."
"What Russia is doing in Ukraine shows that this 'evil empire' is not a thing of the past and today it is showing its worst face once again," he said.
Duda cited the late Polish-born Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as the US national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter: "Russia can be either an empire or a democracy, but it cannot be both… Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire."
