President Duda at UN General Assembly: Russian aggressors must lose this war

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Polish President Andrzej Duda embraced the righteousness of the Ukrainian cause.

"The aggressor, in a sense, has already lost. It has lost because it failed to subdue every nation. It lost because it did not break the spirit of the Ukrainian nation. It lost because it did not disperse the Ukrainian army. Today, it has against it not only the Ukrainian state itself, but a nation of many millions, the vast majority of whom do not want any negotiations whatsoever with the invader until he withdraws his forces from the occupied lands of Ukraine. It is at odds with a large part of the nations of the world who have spoken their minds very clearly. Also in the resolutions adopted here in the United Nations organisation, it has against itself my country, Poland, whom - and I'm saying this here and now - Ukraine can always count on," Duda said.

He added he was among those politicians who, "even before the war, believed that Ukraine would successfully defend itself".

"Today, I'm convinced that Ukraine will prevail, that the refugees will return to their homes, that Ukraine will be rebuilt, that its internationally recognised borders will be restored. My country, Poland joining forces of its allies, will do its utmost to make this happen," he added.

But it is for further, more concrete reasons that Russia's invasion fully occupied the time given to Duda at the U.N. As he explained during his speech, Duda's nation of 38 million residents has seen an uptick of some two or three million since the conflict began seven months ago.

"One year ago I was delivering my speech at this very place as a president of a country of 38 million people. Today I'm standing on this rostrum with the awareness that in my country, in Poland, according to various statistics, more than 40 million, and according to some voices, as many as 41 million people are living," Poland's president said.

"The additional two or three million people are first and foremost refugees from Ukraine, our neighbours. Some of them are our permanent guests, while others travel between Poland and Ukraine. However, there is one thing that all of them have in common. They are sheltering in our country from war. They are taking refuge in our country from death, from slavery, in the Russian occupation after Russia's invasion of Ukraine," he added.

But the masses swelling into Poland have been taken care of by the country, its leader said, with all having been provided with "dignified accommodation."

"Our citizens, have taken to their homes hundreds of thousands of refugees. Yes, perhaps it's hard to believe it for many of you, but despite the fact that six million Ukrainian refugees have come to our country and according to our estimates, around two million are staying in Poland right now, despite of all of that, we did not have to build a single refugee camp. There was no such necessity. Nobody is living in a tent in Poland. Everybody has found dignified accommodation and dignified conditions in homes and in places specially prepared for them, in hotels, in boarding houses, in other temporary locations. There are no tent camps in Poland, where people would be living, sheltering themselves from war. Everybody has found dignified accommodation," president Duda stressed.

He added that each and every Polish citizen was familiar with the situation in Ukraine.

"Every Polish man and every Polish woman vividly remembers what Russian occupation means, what Russian invasion of a state means, what Russian terror means, because Polish families have lived through that terror after the Second World War, when the Russians occupied Poland, and when Poland was behind the Iron Curtain and the Patriots were trying to shake off the Russian yoke, and they were fighting and many people were put in prisons and murdered."

"Speaking in this hall, I do not need to recall that Ukraine is one of the most important food producers in the world. It is a breadbasket, not only of Europe but also of the world. Conservative estimates indicate that this year alone, Ukraine's harvest will be 35% smaller in the aftermath of war. I emphasise, ladies and gentlemen, a 35% smaller harvest in Ukraine. More than one third of the breadbasket of large parts of the world has been eliminated by the Russian aggression," Duda underscored.

"Who will suffer from this? Those who are most in need. It is an economic weapon. It is weaponisation of food hitting Africa and the Middle East the hardest. I have been in politics long enough not to be naïve on that count. This is a deliberate policy of Russia. It is estimated that in the aftermath of war in Ukraine, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger this year will increase by about 47 million people, again, especially in Africa and in the Middle East. There, this famine catastrophe, provoked by Russia as a result of its aggression of Ukraine, will be most visible," he said.

Polish president stressed that the international community was "obliged to prevent anyone in the 21st century from knowingly and cynically causing artificial famine in the name of achieving their political goals".

"The decision to wage this horrible war was made in Russia by people prompted by imperial sentiment and colonial nationalist Russian hubris, exalting their own people and denying the right to self-determination to their sovereign neighbours. They managed to obsess with this thought the nation of one of the U.N.'s founding states, a nation that had a chance to protest against the insanity of its leaders. Unfortunately, only a few among the Russians, those most courageous, stood up against this war. They dared to stand on the side of justice and honesty,"

Honourable Mr. Secretary General, ladies and gentlemen, this war, the war started by Russia on Ukraine, like all other conflicts going on in the world today, must be lost by the aggressor. And the aggressor in this very case is - let me reiterate it once again - the Russian state."

Speaking earlier in the day before his address, Duda said potential referendums being organised by Russia in territories it occupies in Ukraine are worth nothing and that Poland will not recognise the results.

"(The referendums) are worth nothing - the truth is that the result is decided in the Kremlin and not by voting," Andrzej Duda told reporters.

Just last week, Poland signed a contract with South Korea to supply Warsaw with 48 new light combat aircraft as it seeks to bolster its armed forces amidst ongoing security worries related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, Poland has supplied Kyiv with arms and ammunition and began to purchase new equipment as it seeks to modernise its armed forces and replace the supplies sent to Ukraine.