Canada. Andrzej Duda: we must cause significant losses for Russia, because Russians only know the language of force

Polish President Andrzej Duda visits Canada. On Friday in Vancouver, he attended a seminar on transatlantic security. In his speech, he pointed out that Russia's aggression against Ukraine affects the global security system. As he said, Vladimir Putin – by starting the invasion of Ukraine – destroyed the security architecture established after the Cold War.

Andrzej Duda emphasized that Poland had been predicting and warning against such a scenario for many years, because we, Poles, know the Russians' mentality and their way of acting very well.

He pointed out that Moscow imperialism, which was born in the 15th century, had not changed much since then: its essence was to constantly expand the territory at the expense of its neighbors or reduce them to subjugation and domination over them.

In the president's opinion, Russia's policy will not change even if Putin leaves the Kremlin. – The real problem is the imperial mentality of the Russian people. And that is why we must win on the front lines. If we hope for any change in Russia, we must cause it to suffer significant military losses. Russians only know the language of force and understand it only, Duda said.

He pointed out that Russia is not too concerned about Western sanctions and has enough forces and resources to wage a long war of attrition. – This is one of the Kremlin's goals – to drag the entire Western world into a very long war and exhaust our societies with inflation, new waves of refugees and sudden increases in energy prices – says the president.

– This means only one thing for us, we must provide Ukraine with weapons as soon as possible that will help push the Russian occupiers out of Ukrainian lands, Duda said. – We must consistently and quickly strengthen our forces and the military potential of NATO as a whole. This is the only effective way to deter Russia, because Russia never attacks the strong, he added.

According to Duda, the most realistic scenario for Ukraine's victory in the war is to ensure its combat capabilities in a thoughtful and effective way. As he said, appropriate industrial facilities are necessary for this, including those related to the production of weapons and ammunition.

The president also said that the anniversary NATO summit in Washington must show the Alliance's readiness for collective defense and at the same time strengthen relations between NATO and Ukraine.

– We expect that the Alliance will start working on creating a new strategy towards Russia, one that will be aimed at stopping it. We will talk about it at the summit in Washington and I hope that specific decisions will be made on this matter, the president said.

He pointed out that global changes are taking place before our eyes and NATO cannot afford to be a passive observer. – We must all individually, but also collectively, build powerful armed forces, because this will result in the collective security of the Alliance – emphasized the president.

Hence, he explained, his proposal for all members of the Alliance to decide to increase defense spending from 2 to 3 percent. GDP. According to Duda, this issue should also be discussed at the July NATO summit in Washington.