Poland's Duda: Whoever joins Russia must be punished in the same way as the aggressor

Whoever joins Russia must be punished in the same way as the aggressor, Poland's President Andrzej Duda told a joint news conference in Bucharest on Tuesday with his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis, Agerpres reports.

"If Belarus joins the war, if it attacks Ukraine, I think it will be necessary to make decisions about imposing sanctions on Belarus, and I believe that NATO and the European Union and all honest countries must be clear: whoever joins Russia must be sanctioned in the same way as the aggressor," said the Polish President, according to the official Romanian translation.

He said this summer's NATO summit would be "exceptional."

"Before the NATO summit, we will make diplomatic efforts so that everyone who creates this huge global alliance will understand how serious the situation is and how cruel Russia is, which is a huge threat to the whole world, especially since it is an empire that has the nuclear weapon at its disposal and wants to expand its land," Duda said.

The Polish chief of state also spoke from the perspective of his country.

"Poland does not want to go back to the sphere of Russian influence, we were there once and we do not want that to be repeated, so we will discuss with our allies what actions should be taken against Russia, what sanctions we can impose to make it painful for Russia, what other action we should take at the diplomatic level, but also at the level of materially supporting Ukraine, in order to achieve the goal of ending the war, so that Ukraine can continue to exist as a sovereign, peace-loving country," he added.

He also mentioned the consequences of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

"It must be said out loud that the alliance with Russia no longer exists, it is no longer binding, and NATO should not mention the 1997 act or any commitment to Russia. It is NATO's commitment to defend the world against Russia, which is an aggressor that is dropping bombs on residential areas. This is a war that can be called a total war, reminiscent of WWII, and that's how it should be seen," said Duda.