Did Poland's President Andrzej Duda say that Ukraine has already lost the war with Russia, and he sees no point in assisting Ukraine because Russia is too strong? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no such information on the official website of the president of the Republic of Poland, where all the president's remarks are collected. No such statement was published on Duda's official Twitter and Facebook accounts either, or reported by the media, as would be expected.
On March 8, 2023, the claim appeared in a video posted on the TikTok account @shoknewsz (archived here). On May 7, 2023, it was also shared by the account @treshak.tik.tok (archived here).
The claim opened:
POLAND SHOCKED
UKRAINIANS ALREADY LOST THIS WAR
UKRAINE ALREADY LOST THIS WAR - ANDRZEJ DUDA
The President of Poland amazed everyone with his words: "I don't see the point in providing assistance to Ukraine; Russia is too strong. It seems to me that we should admit that the outcome of the war is already known to everyone..."
(The text has been translated from Russian by Lead Stories staff).
Below is how the post appeared on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok.com screengrab taken Wed May 10 10:40:23 2023 UTC)
A search on Google didn't show any credible reports that President Duda said that Ukraine has already lost the war with Russia. If that were the case, it would be a very significant statement and would have been reported by the media: Poland has been one of Ukraine's most ardent supporters since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Other Lead Stories fact checks about the Russia-Ukraine war can be found here.
