2023-09-20 17:59:06
The words of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Tuesday before the UN General Assembly about certain vetoes on the export of Ukrainian grain have led to acute diplomatic tension with Poland, one of the countries that has most supported the nation invaded by Russia but fears that Ukrainian agricultural strength will harm Polish farmers. The Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador “urgently” this Wednesday to protest the comments made by Zelensky in New York.
“It is worrying that some in Europe are playing the role of solidarity in a political theater, turning cereal into a thriller,” Zelensky said Tuesday. It seems like they are playing their own roles, but what they are doing is helping to set the stage for an actor from Moscow.” The suggestion of a possible pretense of solidarity has deeply irritated Warsaw.
The Polish Deputy Foreign Minister told the Ukrainian ambassador that it is a “false thesis regarding Poland and particularly unjustified regarding Poland, which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war,” according to the Ministry in a statement. Poland hosts 1.6 million Ukrainian refugees, the vast majority of them women and children.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 19
TIMOTHY CLARY / AFP
In recent days, tension has grown between Warsaw and Kyiv over grain. Brussels announced on Friday the lifting of the veto on the entry of Ukrainian cereal, a measure granted last May to five countries (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria) to protect their farmers from the consequent destabilization of prices. Following the European Commission’s announcement, Warsaw, Budapest and Bratislava immediately decreed unilateral embargoes, to which Kyiv responded on Monday with a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
After the lifting of the veto by Brussels
The Government of Poland seeks to continue protecting its farmers from the destabilization of prices caused by the entry of Ukrainian grain
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned this Wednesday that, if Kyiv intensifies the grain conflict, Poland will expand the list of banned Ukrainian products. Poland holds elections on October 15, and the agrarian vote is key to the continuity of Morawiecki’s party, the ultranationalist Law and Justice (PiS). Slovakia also holds elections on September 30, in which former Prime Minister Robert Fico aspires to return to power.
After the call to its ambassador, Kyiv reacted by demanding a “constructive approach” to the dispute. “We ask our Polish friends to put aside emotions,” Ukrainian diplomatic spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook. The statement from Polish diplomacy states that “pressuring Poland in multilateral forums or sending complaints to international courts are not appropriate methods for resolving disputes between our countries.”
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