President Komorowski opens "Freedom of Speech Square" in Warsaw on Monday: photo - PAP/ Tomasz Gzell
Komorowski's remarks, made in an interview on Polish Radio, follow Monday's meeting with Arseniy Yatsenyuk, currently the leader of the Ukrainian opposition owing to the imprisonment of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Yatsenyuk had appealed to Polish dignitaries yesterday not to shake hands with Ukrainian authorities during Euro 2012. However, Komorowski brushed off the idea.
“If someone wants to offend the president of Ukraine, then it will be without me,” he said.
Instead, Komorowski said that the primary objective is to convince the EU to sign pending agreements with Ukraine.
“This is the main problem,” he said.
“The question of who will give hands to who, we will leave to the Ukrainians,” he added.
The EU was due to sign an Association Agreement - a treaty by which non-EU members gain privileges in economic, political and cultural spheres – with Ukraine, as well as a separate agreement concerning free trade.
However, the project was dropped by the EU, owing to the October 2011 imprisonment of Tymoshenko, and the alleged repression of other opposition activists.
When asked about the special meeting with Ukraine's opposition leader, Komorowski said that “Poland wants to have the best relations with Ukraine's entire political scene.”
In response to Yatsenyuk's warning that Ukraine's parliamentary elections this Autumn could be rigged, Komorowski urged caution.
“It is also important not to announce in advance that something bad will happen, as that can be just as harmful,” the president reflected.
“Because now the battle is taking place quietly as to whether Ukraine will get another chance to integrate with the West after the parliamentary elections,” he said.
Meanwhile, Komorowski has pledged that he will continue to push for a solution to the case of Tymoshenko's imprisonment. (nh)