Poland must demand compensation from Russia for Katyn massacre, says Duda

Poland must appeal to international judicial institutions to recognize the responsibility of Russia, as the successor to the USSR, for the Katyn massacre. Warsaw must initiate compensation payment by Moscow.

This was stated by Polish President Andrzej Duda, who met with the families of the Katyn massacre victims, Ukrinform reports citing Duda’s website.

"I have no doubt that the Russian state today bears the inherited responsibility for the Katyn crime. And if we can file a claim to anyone today, it is to the Russian state. And I believe that this is the way to go," Duda stressed.

He underlined that he felt a moral and historical duty before the Poles to "renew the attempt to obtain confirmation of the crime and identification of those responsible on the part of the international judiciary.

The Katyn crime was the execution by the NKVD security forces near the village of Katyn in 1940 of more than 22,000 Polish officers and other members of the pre-war Polish administration. Similar executions also took place near Tver, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Minsk. For a long time, Soviet historiography denied the killings of Poles by Soviet special services, instead blamed the Germans. The Nazis exposed the crimes of the NKVD to the world in April 1943. It was not until 1990 that the USSR acknowledged responsibility for the crime. However, Russia still refuses to hand over to Poland most of the archival documents relating to the so-called Katyn case.