Poland has a feeling that its multidimensional assistance after the outbreak of full-scale war “has not been properly appreciated”, this was discussed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zielenski, Polish President Karol Nawrocki has said.
“we now realise, this is also the impression that Poles have … We talked about it today, that Poles have such an impression (which is reflected in public opinion surveys) that multidimensional assistance to Poland after the outbreak of a full-scale war was not evaluated accordingly. This was also a topic of our conversation with the president. We feel this,” he said at a joint press conference with the Ukrainian president.
According to him, he conveyed this honestly, frankly in a gentlemanly conversation to Zelensky.
The Polish president says that the Ukrainian authorities have “tools to contain and discourage this trend”.
At the same time, he said that during the conversation they discussed security issues. Navrotsky said that Russia poses threats to its Europe, Poland and Ukraine.
President Zelensky, in turn, said that “Ukraine is always grateful to Poland and will always be grateful, but at the same time Ukraine has always defended itself and its Europe.”
“The biggest price we have paid is the lives of our people. I think it is very important that the alliance between our states has been very strong. We must do everything to keep it, it is important. There are risks, of course. There are external factors. But we have to work as leaders to make sure that this strong alliance continues. It also depends on the rhetoric of both countries. We should all be careful, respect each other. Russia wants discord, wants to destroy such an alliance. We will not let them do it,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki held their first meeting in Poland today.
According to a recent EUI-YouGov survey, over the three years of the full-scale invasion, the desire to grant asylum to Ukrainians has decreased the most among those surveyed. Among Poles, this figure has dropped by 30 per cent.
Polish citizens’ attitudes towards migrants from Ukraine have worsened over the past six months. 50% of Poles believe that their country’s assistance to Ukrainians is excessive. And 8 per cent of Ukrainians said they had faced discrimination on national grounds – particularly because of the language in Poland.