Presidential Couple pay visit to Lithuania
President Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda arrived in Vilnius on Thursday to attend the burial of the remains of insurgents who took part in the Polish January Uprising in 1863 against Russia.
Referring to the Friday burial ceremonies, Andrzej Duda underlined that this would be an event which will pay homage to heroes of several Central European countries, who opposed tsarist Russia. He also emphasised that the burial was important for historical identity and memory, as well as for the strengthening of ties and the building of Polish-Lithuanian friendship.
He added that his talks with Nauseda concerned joint infrastructure investments, energy cooperation, security, military collaboration and the situation in Ukraine.
"Together with the Lithuanian president, we have no doubts that the sanctions (imposed on Russia - PAP) should be upheld since they are connected with the ongoing occupation of the Ukrainian territory. We are thinking here about Crimea, as well as the Lugansk and Donetsk regions," he went on to say.
"This is a situation, which no one in today's Europe can accept and we must not accept it, since there is nothing worse than changing borders in a modern Europe by force. This is something repeating itself in Europe after 2008 and this can meet neither with our approval nor with our silent consent," he emphasised.
In 1863-1864, Russian troops executed 21 leaders and participants of a revolt against the Russian Empire, which had partitioned Poland together with Prussia and Austria Hungary at the end of the 18th century. The victims' bodies were buried in secret. In 2017, during archaeological work, the burial sites of four insurgents were discovered.
Source: PAP