President says Ukraine war sites justify Nato eastern presence

Poland's president has said anyone who has seen Ukrainian towns like Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin and Mariupol, knows why allied forces have a presence on Nato's eastern flank.

A contingent of Polish tank soldiers is located in Adazi as part of Nato's Enhanced Forward Presence in Latvia. During a visit to the troops, Andrzej Duda said he had been supposed to visit them in April but could not make it as he had "gone to see with my own eyes why you are here."

He added that at that time he had travelled to Kyiv at the invitation of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, and while there had also travelled to Irpin and Borodyanka, from where only a few days earlier the Russian army had been forced out.

"Anyone who's seen Irpin, Borodyanka, Bucha, Mariupol and other places in Ukraine knows perfectly well why there are allied forces on Nato's eastern flank today and why our soldiers are also serving in other countries, fulfilling their service for the security of other states, nations and the Alliance as a whole," Duda said.

He added that those who had seen these places in Ukraine know the reason Nato has a presence on its eastern flank is: "So that no one invades us. It doesn't pay and that's the way it should be."

He went on to say that anyone who entered Nato territory as an attacker would be "immediately forced out or destroyed."