Poland must continue armament programmes to ensure its security amid Russian imperialism, Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, said as the country celebrates its Independence Day.

„Russian imperialism will not stop in Ukraine unless it is rebuked. It will want to take away the sovereignty of other countries,” he said at a Saturday ceremony marking the 105th anniversary of Poland’s return to statehood in 1918 after more than a century of partitions by three surroundings empires - Russian, German and Austrian.

„We must strengthen the military security of our country, rebuild the significant potential of our army, modernise it, make it capable of defending Poland in the event of external aggression, and be able to fight, even against Russian army if it wanted to come here,” Duda continued.

According to him, the Polish army should be strong enough to guarantee that the Russian army will not occupy Poland „because … only the prospect of its defeat in Poland and … the disgrace of the collapse of the imperial idea, can stop Russian imperialism.”

Therefore, he said, „the armament programmes that we have started must be consistently completed and fully implemented, both in terms of purchases and in terms of increasing the personnel potential of our army.”

„This is a historical issue, an existential issue and fundamental to the security of Poland, Poles, for our existence,” Duda said.

mk, PAP