Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Monday that “Russia should bear the costs of rebuilding” war-torn Ukraine.
This came in a joint press conference for President Duda with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.
President Duda said, “Russia is obligated to carry out the reconstruction of Ukraine, and I believe the international community will force it to bear the costs.”
“In fact, this is an important duty of the international community to force Russia to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine,” he added.
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The Polish leader noted that “it was Russia that started the war against Ukraine and therefore it must bear all the costs of reconstruction.”
“If someone attacks a country, they have to pay a big bill,” Duda said. “This is what we have to do now with Russia.”
On December 1, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, announced that he plans to discuss available legal means to ensure that Russia pays for the reconstruction costs of Ukraine.
Borrell said, at the Ministerial Conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which was held in the Polish city of Lodz on December 1-2, that the union “will discuss all legal possibilities to make sure that Russia will pay for the destruction it causes in Ukraine.”
On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, which was followed by angry international reactions and the imposition of “tough” economic and financial sanctions on Moscow.