Polish president pays tribute to post-WWII anti-communist fighters

Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, has paid tribute to the so-called Cursed Soldiers, or Polish fighters who stood up against the communist rule imposed by Moscow after World War Two.

The president marked the country's Cursed Soldiers Remembrance Day on Wednesday during a visit to the town of Sierpc in central Poland.

The Cursed Soldiers waged a clandestine armed struggle against Poland's communist state well into the 1950s.

"The enduring soldiers (alternative name for 'cursed soldiers' - PAP) died for Poland, a Poland that I believe we have today, a Poland that is sovereign and independent, one that is efficient in running its own affairs, a Poland that can take care of its interests in the world, a Poland that not only gets security from its great and important allies, but one which also has become strong enough to offer its security to others, one that can be a donor of this security and can share its potential," Duda said.

In this context, the president recalled Poland's involvement in Nato's Air Policing mission, in which Polish pilots patrol the skies over the Baltic states, and other Polish military missions, including troops being stationed in Latvia and Romania.

Earlier in the day, the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, attended a ceremony in Warsaw to mark Cursed Soldiers Remembrance Day.