Polish President Andrzej Duda said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “terrorism,” adding that those who committed war crimes in the country must be punished.
Duda made the remarks during a news conference on Wednesday, when he and leaders of the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the country’s capital of Kyiv.
“It’s not war, it’s terrorism when soldiers are sent to murder civilians,” Duda said at the news conference. “It is a face of war that we are not able [to] and cannot accept.”
Duda also said at the news conference that Russia must be held accountable for the crimes they are committing in the region, CNN reported.
“The perpetrators of these crimes, both direct and indirect, must be punished. Prosecutors collect evidence in places where mass murders took place. It is inconceivable that such things should happen in the modern world,” Duda said at the news conference.
“There is no dialogue with those who break all the rules,” Duda added. “I hope that Ukraine will soon become part of the European Union as a free and sovereign state making decisions about itself.”
Duda’s remarks come as Russian President Vladimir Putin, alongside his ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, said on Wednesday that the reports of human atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha are “fake,” instead pointing the blame at British special agents.
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces of executing, raping and torturing residents in Bucha, a town near Kyiv.
The mayor of Mariupol, a port city in the east, said this week that more than 10,000 civilians have been killed amid Russian attacks.
On Tuesday, President Biden said that Putin has committed acts of genocide in Ukraine, after his administration previously determined Russia is committing war crimes.