The end of the Ukraine conflict could trigger a wave of international organized crime if thousands of veterans return without a job or a prospect of one, warned Polish President Andrzej Duda.
In an interview with the Financial Times, published on Monday, Duda expressed his concern that, once the fighting is over, criminal activity from Ukraine could spread to neighboring Poland and potentially also affect the EU and the US.
Duda, whose two five-year terms as president will end in August, drew parallels to Russia in the early 1990s.
“Remember the time when the Soviet Union collapsed and how the rate of organized crime in Western Europe, but also in the US, rose” he told the FT.
The Ukraine will need support to rebuild its economy and maintain internal security and order once the conflict is over, Duda said.
“Imagine the situation when we have thousands of people coming back from the front. These people, who are fighting against Russia, a lot of them will suffer from mental problems” he warned.
Many of them would suffer from post-traumatic stress if they return to “their villages, their cities” only to find “destroyed houses, destroyed factories, ruined businesses, no jobs and no perspective” Duda added.
Despite the massive support Warsaw offers Kiev in the conflict, Duda has picked up on the skepticism of Prime Minister Donald Tusk regarding the deployment of Polish peacekeepers in Ukraine to enforce a potential peace agreement.
The president added that if the US invites other nations to the negotiating table, it would be in the interest of Ukraine for Poland to be there too.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump had said Washington was determined to hold talks with both Russia and Ukraine to end the hostilities, noting that the discussions were “going quite well.”
Moscow has signaled its openness to talks with Washington on a solution to the conflict, but has not announced any agreement on talks.