President highlights importance of truth about Katyn Massacre for Poland
The truth of the 1940 Katyn Forest Massacre of Polish POWs by the Soviet secret police NKVD is the foundation of a free, sovereign and independent Poland, President Andrzej Duda said in Ukraine on Sunday.
Andrzej Duda and his wife, Agata Kornhauser-Duda took part in observance marking the 80th anniversary of the tragic event held on Sunday evening at the Polish Military Cemetery in Bykivnia near Kiev.
The President said that he was very satisfied that "thanks to the kindness of the Ukrainian authorities" the Polish delegation could "stand on this land of blood in Bykivnia," the place where thousands of Poles were murdered.
He said that a lie about the Katyn massacre was the foundation of communist Poland, "the strongest unifying element of the people of that era," and „therefore we are proud that the truth about the Katyn massacre, about the bestial genocidal murder that the Soviets committed against Polish officers in Katyn, in Kharkiv and here in Bykivnia, is today one of the strongest foundations of a free, true, truly sovereign, independent Poland."
The Polish president also condemned the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and Moscow's support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine as he called for respecting international law.
Source: PAP
