Poland envoy to India Adam Burakowski has assured full cooperation to India when it comes to its evacuation plans for Indian nationals in the country. Speaking to our diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal, Envoy Adam said, ” I can assure you that Polish authorities are fully cooperating with India”, explaining, “Poland and other countries which border Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania are providing help.” A number of Indian nationals have reached the Poland-Ukraine border and have been advised to make for the Shehyni Medyka border crossing. The Polish government is allowing people to cross the border on foot. The Krakowiec border crossing is for persons travelling in their own vehicles.
Meanwhile, the envoy also talked about how Poland supports “Ukraine in their fight, and Ukrainians are fighting for their independence against Russian aggression”. He pointed, “EU is helping Ukraine with loans, with humanitarian assistance and we know Russia is a very aggressive state. We see the example right now.” Poland itself is bracing with a huge influx of refugees from neighboring Ukraine. Meanwhile, in a show of support for war-torn Kyiv, Poland has refused to take part in the world cup 2022 playoff with Russia due to take place next month.
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WION: How is your country supporting the evacuation of Indian nationals?
Adam Burakowski: As we know Russia invaded Ukraine, against international law, so by doing this Russia itself excluded itself from the international community. Poland and other countries of the European Union strongly condemn this act and we are helping Ukraine with many things, also with weapons. This situation, the Russian aggression is a very threat to people living in Ukraine. Russians are aiming at civilians. They are attacking civil targets, they are killing women, children, and they just want to kill these people. Among these, there are Indian students who are there in the peaceful country of Ukraine because they were studying, and the country gave them very good conditions. Now they are escaping from the threat of Russian aggression, Indian students escaping from Russian bombs, Russian bullets. Poland is willing to help. The Indian embassy in Warsaw is coordinating this action. They can go to Poland and from Poland, they will be taken to India by special flights. Details can be found on the website and social media of the Indian embassy in Poland. I can assure you that Polish authorities are fully cooperating with India about it but of course the biggest influx of people are not from India. They are Ukrainians because their country has been attacked by Russia and they lost many people from their families, they just want to keep their lives and not be killed by Russian bullets. Indian students are also in the same or similar threats also because they could be killed by Russian bullets and they want to escape. Poland and other countries that border Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania are providing help.
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WION: How does the situation impact your country? especially the refugee crisis?
Adam Burakowski: First of all, we support Ukraine in their fight, and Ukrainians are fighting for their independence against Russian aggression. Concerning the refugee crisis caused by Russia, we are helping the refugees, even before the Russian aggression, there were one million or even more Ukrainians living peacefully in Poland. They have families in Ukraine, so there are many Ukrainian nationals coming to Poland. And Poland is providing support for them because we know what is being attacked by foreign powers. Warsaw, the capital of Poland has been bombed by Nazi Germany. So we know how it is in Kyiv now it’s bombed by Russia.
WION: How do European capitals look at this invasion by Russia?
Adam Burakowski: This is not the first aggressive act committed by Russia, in 2008 Russia invaded Georgia, 2014 Russia invaded Ukraine as you remember, and now another invasion of Russia but this time it’s on a much bigger scale. This is a full-scale military campaign aimed at crashing Ukraine, killing civilians, killing women and children, elder people, so we are really strengthening our security. We are a member of NATO, EU and these organizations help Ukraine, not only militarily. NATO countries sent military weapons, other resources to Ukraine. Also, the EU is helping Ukraine with loans, with humanitarian assistance and we know Russia is a very aggressive state. We see the example right now. But we are strong western communities, European Union, and other countries the UK, the US, Canada, and Japan introduced very severe sanctions against the officials of the Russian regime.
WION: EU has announced a number of sanctions? how different are these sanctions from the previous sanctions announced by the EU?
Adam Burakowski: These actions are very strong, not only the sanctions I have already mentioned. There are many other, Russian Banks that are now banned in Europe, also the private accounts of Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov have been frozen because they had banking accounts in Western Europe. And also some, also important smaller actions, like for example Russia was banned from some football games and Poland has made important decision to ban all the Russian civil aviation from the Polish airspace. Even the Euro vision song, Russia was expelled. So every organization which is committed to peace and stability wants to get Russia out of the organization. Russia has been suspended from the council of Europe, really all this excludes Russia from the international community. But it’s not like we are excluding them, they are excluding themselves because they are against international law and standards and they just created the biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe in recent decades because Russia invaded Ukraine.
WION: In Delhi, European union envoys and G7 envoys have met. What is the purpose of these meetings?
Adam Burakowski: We are united and we just want to show it that we are united. Tonight, I will go to the embassy of Ukraine to commemorate the victims of the Russian attacks because the Russians attacked civilian targets and killed many children. So I want to commemorate this but show my reality, not only solidarity with Ukraine but to show that Poland rejects such Russian methods, that they are using.