President: NATO summit decisions completely opposite to Putin's expectations

Ahead of the second day of the NATO summit in Madrid, Poland's President Andrzej Duda met with reporters. In his opinion, Wednesday "was a very good day and very important decions were made". The president also praised the atmosphere of unity and solidarity in which said decision had been taken.

"Vladimir Putin decided to attack Ukraine to spread 'Russkiy Mir', to make Russia more powerful, but he failed deeply. NATO turned out to be serious, firm and decisive. Putin wanted to weaken NATO but faced unity, swift decisions by the Alliance, quick and firm support for Ukraine. That's something completely opposite to what Putin wanted to achieve. This whole situation is undoubtedly Russia's defeat," Duda said.

He added that, by attacking Ukraine, "Russia has shown its true face". "We Poles have been always saying - and have been accused of Russophobia - that the Russians are ruthless, that they have imperialistic appetites, share a sense of Russian superiority which drives them to rule other nations, and that Russia pursues expansionism. We weren't treated seriously and faced criticism," the president said.

"Unfortunately, today all these things turn out to be true, it turn out we were right. Russia is an aggressor and everyone can see it. It violates international law standards and commits crimes against civilians. Today, the whole world knows the responsibility for this war lies with the Russians, Russia and Vladimir Putin," the Polish president underscored.

In line with earlier announcements, president Duda confirmed that a session of Poland's National security Council would be held on Monday (July 4), at which he would summarise the conclusions of the Madrid summit. "I hope that all those invited will be certain to attend as per usual. It's worth to discuss the outcome of this summit together and above political divisions, to discuss the situtation, perspectives, to talk about how we should act as Poland," he said.

"This issue goes beyond all divisions in our country. Poland's safety is crucial to us all. I'm happy that this responsibility is present on the political scene. Thanks to it, we are handling this difficult situation so well as a country, and as a society," Andrzej Duda added.