The president of Poland's ruling party has said the country will push ahead with plans to cut a canal through a split of land near the Russian border saying "it is time show the Russians the days they dictated to us are over".

Poland wants to dig the canal through a narrow strip of land that blocks the Vistula Lagoon on the north-east coast from the Baltic Sea. At present Polish ships leaving the lagoon from the port of Elblag have to pass through Russian waters to get to the open sea.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Law and Justice, the governing party, and a man regarded as the most powerful figure in Polish politics, said the necessity to sever the last vestiges of Russian influence over Poland means the canal has to be built.

“It is important for Poland’s status,” he said in a radio interview. “In the end Poland needs to shed the last traces of being a dependent state. We need to show that that times Russia dictated what we could or not do on our territory are over.”

Earlier this month Russia complained to the European Commission about the canal. In a letter to the Commission’s environment and maritime affairs commissionaire, Moscow complained that it had not been consulted over the canal and that the construction of the waterway threatened the ecology of the lagoon.