Poland’s president: Ukraine like ‘drowning person clinging to anything available’

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday compared Ukraine’s fight for survival to that of a “drowning person” capable of bringing down those who try to help. 

“Ukraine is behaving like a drowning person clinging to anything available,” Duda told Polish journalists, the Financial Times reported. “A drowning person is extremely dangerous, capable of pulling you down to the depths … simply drown the rescuer.”

Duda’s comments come just days after Poland led a group of neighboring countries in banning Ukrainian grain imports. 

Poland has been a steadfast supporter of Ukraine since the war began and has taken in more than a million Ukrainian refugees. 

Public sentiment around the issue, however, has started to deteriorate, putting the ruling party in a difficult position ahead of a close October election. The far-right Confederation party is hoping to capitalize on the waning support in the country. 

Reuters reported that a recent poll showed support for Ukrainian refugees fell from 91 percent when the war started to just 69 percent recently. The same survey showed a quarter of Poles are against supporting refugees, compared to 4 percent in early 2022.

At the same time, however, Duda has maintained his commitment to helping Ukraine. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday, Duda reaffirmed his support for defeating Russia completely.

“Russia can be stopped only if it is defeated, and it will be defeated when Ukraine pushes out the Russian army from the occupied territories, thanks to the help of the United States, thanks to the help of the West, and when it regains control over its internationally recognized borders,” Duda said in the interview.

“Only then will we be able to say that Russian imperialism was really defeated,” he said.