The ongoing violence between Hamas and Israel benefits Russia because it distracts the international community from Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and could lead to new migration pressure on Europe, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Poland, which has been supporting Kyiv since Russia launched its invasion in early 2022, has taken in more than a million Ukrainian refugees.

But she flatly rejected any European Union mechanism that would require it to take in some illegal migrants entering the bloc from other directions.

“This is clearly in favor of Russia and Russian aggression against Ukraine. It distracts the world’s attention… But first of all, I am afraid that this, unfortunately, will cause additional migratory pressure on Europe,” said Duda in an interview with the private Polsat News TV channel.

“We will probably have another wave of migrants from the Middle East that will hit Europe… Our security, the protection of Poland’s borders, of course, but also the borders of the European Union and the Schengen area, becomes even more important. ,” he added.

Russia is seeking to use the Hamas attack on Israel to divert Western support and attention away from Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment on Sunday.

The opposition of Poland and Hungary to the EU’s migration pact prevented the adoption of a joint final declaration that would have also included the topic at the European summit held in the Spanish city of Granada on Friday, so European Council President Charles Michel issued a separate statement on the topic of migration, and a joint the summit declaration refers only to other topics on the agenda, including EU enlargement.

“I am the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland. I am responsible for the safety of Poland and its citizens. Therefore, as a responsible politician, I officially reject the entire paragraph with the conclusions of the summit on migration,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on the X social network.

Read also: Tension at the EU summit in Granada: Poland and Hungary are accused of imposing a “dictat” on migration / Viktor Orban: “Compromise is impossible”