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Polish PM urges immediate Western response as Russia attacks Ukraine

24.02.2022 08:15
Poland’s prime minister on Thursday called on the West to mount an immediate response to “Russia’s criminal aggression against Ukraine.”
Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.PAP/Marcin Obara

Mateusz Morawiecki made the appeal on Twitter after Russia began an invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday morning, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

We must immediately respond to Russia's criminal aggression on Ukraine,” the Polish prime minister wrote. He added that "Europe and the free world" must stop Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Today's European Council should approve fiercest possible sanctions,” Morawiecki also said, adding: “Our support for Ukraine must be real.”

He has previously tweeted that sanctions are “the only language that Putin understands.”

Meanwhile, Piotr Müller, the spokesman for the Polish government, said that Poland had asked NATO to trigger Article 4 of the Washington Treaty in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the state PAP news agency reported. 

Article 4 provides that “the Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”

Poland also began evacuating its consulate in the southwestern Ukrainian city of Odessa amid the Russian attack, the foreign ministry in Warsaw announced.

(pm/gs)

Source: IAR, PAP