Andrzej Duda Told How Vladimir Zelensky Moved Him To Tears
4- 30.04.2026, 17:40
- 3,016
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Sometimes one act can change everything.
Former Polish President Andrzej Duda was moved to tears by the courage of Vladimir Zelensky when he refused to leave Kiev at the very beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. He said this in interview with journalist Dmitry Gordon, writes UNIAN.
"I will never forget what Vladimir Zelensky then said to me on February 23, a few hours before the Russian aggression, when we were saying goodbye here in Kiev, when I was leaving for Poland, when I hugged him goodbye and was sincerely so touched that I had tears in my eyes at that time," the former Polish president recalled.
According to Duda, Zielenski then told him that he would stay in Kiev with his family and fight "until the end."
"I will never forget what he said to me. He said to me, 'Andrzej, if Putin thinks that he will take over Ukraine the way he took over Crimea in '14, without a fight, that he will come - and like in Donetsk and Luhansk they just entered and only a few people defended themselves there - that this is how it will be, then he is mistaken,'" Duda said.
The former Polish president said he had "boundless respect" for Zelensky and considered his decision to stay in the capital a crucial factor that helped Ukraine successfully defend itself in the beginning.
"[The Russians] would have wanted to capture Vladimir Zelensky, after all, and it probably would have ended in his death. So it was really a huge sacrifice that he was willing to make at that time, for which I have boundless respect for him as the then president and today the former president of Poland," said Duda.
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