Ukraine outraged: Poland's president warns - end of war could encourage crime

Berliner Zeitung Ukraine outraged: Poland's president warns - end of war could encourage crime Katerina Alexandridi • 12 hours • 2 minutes reading time The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has rejected the Polish president's statements that an end to the war with Russia could trigger a wave of cross-border crime that would affect his country. In an interview with the Financial Times, Andrzej Duda said that Ukraine needs "massive support" from its allies to ensure its security once a peace agreement with Russia is reached. Otherwise, Duda said, there will be an "explosion" of international organized crime that will spill over the border from Ukraine into Poland and also affect Western Europe and the United States. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded that Kyiv was grateful to Warsaw for its significant support. It was also grateful to President Duda personally for his consistent advocacy of Ukraine's interests and his calls for more support from international partners. "However, we do not agree that Ukrainian soldiers who are risking their lives today to defend Europe from Russian invasion are portrayed as a potential threat to European security," it said in a statement released on Monday. Duda, whose second five-year term as Polish president expires in August this year, said that once the Russian war ends, Ukraine should receive enough support to rebuild its economy and maintain "order and security at home." Thousands of people will then return from the front. "Those who fight with Russia will, to a large extent, have psychological problems," Duda said. Many will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and will return to "their villages, their cities, where they will find destroyed houses, destroyed factories, destroyed factories, no jobs and no prospects." According to Kyiv, there has been no significant increase in crime in Poland or Europe since the outbreak of war with Russia in eastern Ukraine's Donbass in 2014. "Ukrainian soldiers and veterans are not a threat, but a security factor for Ukraine, Poland and the whole of Europe," the ministry stressed in its statement. "We are convinced that the brave Ukrainian men and women who fought to defend their country and the whole world against Russian invaders deserve the highest respect."