Andrzej Duda has called on Kiev to make concessions to end the conflict with Russia
Ukraine will have to compromise to achieve a peace settlement with Russia, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said. In an interview with Euronews on Thursday, Duda argued that a lasting peace must be built on mutual concessions.
Warsaw has been one of the staunchest supporters of Kiev in its conflict with Moscow. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has spoken out against any peace deals that would require Ukraine to cede territory.
“It has to be a compromise... in my personal opinion… each side will have to give in in some sense. Well, Ukraine will also have to give in in some sense, because that is probably what will happen,” Duda said.
Discussing US-led peace efforts, Duda argued that only US President Donald Trump, who he described as someone who “plays very tough,” is capable of mediating an end to the hostilities. Duda was the first EU leader to meet with Trump in person following his inauguration in January.
Acting as a mediator in the ongoing negotiations, Trump reportedly presented a peace framework to Kiev earlier this week. The proposal is said to have included the recognition of Crimea as Russian.
The peninsula, where most of the population is ethnically Russian, held a referendum to rejoin Russia in 2014 after a Western-backed armed coup in Kiev.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky insisted on Wednesday that Kiev will never officially recognize Crimea as Russian – which elicited a sharp rebuke from Trump.
Moscow has also ruled out territorial concessions, saying the status of Crimea and the four other former Ukrainian regions that joined Russia after referendums in 2022 is not up for negotiation. Moscow has insisted that a peace deal must recognize the “reality on the ground.”
