Polish President Andrzej Duda spoke to the Ukrainian parliament in person on May 22.

Duda's speech showed that both countries are in a historic moment of transition to a qualitatively better level of their relations, writes Łukasz Adamski, Doctor of History and Political Analyst, Deputy Director of the Center for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding, in his article "Why Andrzej Duda's visit to Kyiv became significant for the relations between Ukraine and Poland."

Nothing symbolizes better the end of restoring trust between Poles and Ukrainians than President Duda's speech - a harbinger of what Taras Shevchenko, in a poem to the Poles, directly called our "quiet paradise."

What exactly did the President of Poland, the first head of state to speak to members of the Verkhovna Rada during the war, say?

Symbolically, this is a gratitude to the Ukrainian named heroes for "protecting Europe from the onslaught of barbarism and the new Russian imperialism" - an extremely significant and touching thing.

In the political dimension, the promise of Poland and the president steadfastly struggle to ensure that Ukraine does not fall victim to the political blackmail of some rich countries, which silently call on Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for ending the war, was major.

President Duda described the implementation of such a scenario as a catastrophe for the values ​​that bind the West.

Another significant statement is that Poland will do everything possible to ensure that Ukraine, which is so eager to join the EU, receives the candidate status, not some ersatz.

Anyone who has encountered the Polish-Ukrainian border at least once will welcome the simplification of its crossing so that it connects, not divides.

Finally, Poland has officially supported plans at the highest possible level to build a high-speed railway from Kyiv to Warsaw. After all, technology allows you to cover the distance between the two capitals not in 18 hours like today but much faster. As between Paris and Marseilles or Hamburg and Munich, which have the same distance as Warsaw and Kyiv.

Symbols and current policy lead to a new Polish-Ukrainian agreement. It should consolidate a qualitatively new level of Polish-Ukrainian relations as well as special privileges for Polish citizens in Ukraine and Ukraine in Poland.

President Duda expressed hope at a press conference that the agreement would be signed in January 2023, the 160th anniversary of the beginning of the last joint anti-Russian uprising of Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians.

You can read more in the article by Łukasz Adamski "Why Andrzej Duda's visit to Kyiv became significant for the relations between Ukraine and Poland."