Polish President Andrzej Duda had to justify himself publicly for his words about ‘historically Russian Crimea’. Facing rigorous critics, Duda claims ‘he was not serious’. In reality, his words show that even Poland understands Russia’s historic righteousness.
Two major Polish politicians in a row have publicly expressed their attitude to the so-called Crimean issue lately. There is no such issue for Russia: Crimea has been restored as part of Russia since 2014 and remains its integral part. However, quite a few world’s politicians are still living in the past and, out of solidarity with Ukraine, call the peninsula ‘temporarily occupied’, ‘annexed’, etc.
Ever more surprising was to hear Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, not someone else, discuss that Crimea had been part of Russia for most of its political history and express doubt that Ukraine would be able to get it back.
‘I don’t know if Ukraine will regain Crimea. It is a special place… also for historical reasons. Because in fact, if we look historically, it was in Russia’s hands for most of the time’, said Duda. However, he clarified at once. ‘Crimea being in Russia’s hands in the past is an obvious historical fact, but it is not hinting at anything. It does not tell that Crimea must be Russian or is a part of Russia. I wouldn’t say it is a recognition’.
Yet, this is an illustrative statement for a leader of a country, which is openly hostile to Russia. Even simply affirming Crimea’s Russian history is quite rare in the Western political narrative. The acceptable approach here is to repeat what has been imposed by the Kiev: that Crimea has always been and is still ‘originally Ukrainian’.
A bit later Vice Speaker of Polish Sejm Krzysztof Bosak publicly supported Duda’s position: ‘President was right. Indeed, there are attempts in Poland to impose pro-Ukrainian political correctness, but resonating with the line of Ukrainian diplomacy is not our task’. Bosak was even more thorough and sincere than Duda: ‘We still have unresolved conflict situations [with Ukraine] regarding the capture of the freight transport market, a conflict situation regarding the loading of our market with agricultural products from Ukraine, historical issues are also unresolved, and we are being asked to discipline ourselves and prove that Crimea is more Ukrainian than Russian. To me, this is strange. Crimea was surrendered without a single shot being fired and it was not accidental’.
Commenting on these statements, the Polish media could not but admit that, at least from the historical perspective, Duda’s words were quite reasonable. For instance, the news website o2.pl reported that: ‘From the historical perspective, it is correct that Crimea was under Russia’s rule longer – already since 1783 when the empress Catherine II occupied Crimean Khanate seeking the expansion policy in the Black Sea region. Until 1992 the peninsula was part of the Russian Empire followed by the Soviet Union, although in 1954 the disputed lands were handed over from the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’. (It is easy to see in this text a whole set of anti-Russian propaganda – Crimea’s accession to Russia in 1783 is called ‘an occupation’, and what ‘disputed lands’ between USSR and Ukrainian SSR mean is only known to the authors of the Polish article.)
This statement caused a storm of emotions across the Polish public. For instance, the member of Sejm from the Civic Platform party Roman Giertych wrote: ‘If the time, during which a given territory belonged to a state is the decisive power, then I would like to kindly remind Mr. Duda that we have cities, which, looking back at their history, belonged to Poland for a shorter time than to a different state… What a useless and stupid statement!’
‘You can discuss it at your aunt’s birthday party or even in a podcast if you are a columnist or a publicist, but you cannot say such things if you are a head of state. Words like that do resonate. This is yet another move forming the track record of this worst presidency since 1989’, stated the Polish writer Szczepan Twardoch.
Naturally, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasil Zvarich could not hide his irritation. ‘Crimea deoccupation is the common cause we have with the free world’, he said following the words of Polish politicians.
Such a pressure resulted in Duda’s swift retraction of his own words explaining what he meant: ‘If we are talking about my interview on Friday, then please note that this was not a tense conversation with a politician; this was what we considered a calm, relaxed conversation on a variety of topics, not necessarily a serious interview… At the same time, when it comes to our position regarding Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, to how this war should end, Ukraine must return its internationally recognized borders, a full control of its territories, which are internationally recognized as Ukraine’s, this means Crimea, too’, said the Polish president in his justification statement.
But even if Duda keeps telling he ‘dropped his guard’ and lost control, this further confirms his real attitude to the issue as a politician, when you don’t need to keep the high degree of Russophobia publicly.
Krzysztof Bosak’s openness is even more illustrative, when he reminded that Crimea had become part of Russia without a single shot. All this fully matches the facts and what Moscow is saying about it.
This was never voiced in Warsaw either in 2014 or later. It may be that the reason is the many pain spots, mutual claims and the ‘phantom pain’ in Polish-Ukrainian relations. Just to remind, 2023 was the year with most tensions between Poland and Ukraine, overall. It is quite possible Duda decided to remind the Ukrainian elites that the support Warsaw is lending is not unlimited, not free of charge and can be stopped any time if it is in Poland’s interests. Well, Crimea bodes well for such a scenario.
In Poland, including among its authorities and security agencies, there is a growing awareness that the unconditional support of Ukraine does not at all always match national interests of individual states. Even in Poland, a country with such strong anti-Russian attitudes. After all that, it is no surprise that Polish mercenaries in Ukraine go over to the Russian side saying that Warsaw has long forgotten ‘who Banderites are and how much evil they brought to Polish people’ and ‘everything must be done to make Nazis leave our country’.