In March 2022, three weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the head of the Polish government, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, took a train to the Ukrainian capital to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and offer him “all his support.” .
Morawiecki was accompanied by his counterparts from the Czech Republic and Slovenia, and were the first three heads of state to show support for Ukraine as the Russian bombardment approached the capital, Kyiv.
Now, 18 months later, the relationship between the staunch allies, Warsaw and Kyiv, has taken a drastic turn.
On Wednesday, Mateusz Morawiecki announced that “we will no longer deliver weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming Poland with more modern weaponry,” the prime minister told Polish news channel Polsat News.
His remarks came after Poland summoned Ukraine’s ambassador on Tuesday to protest comments he made about President Zelensky at the United Nations headquarters.
During his speech at the UN in New York, Zelensky said: “It is alarming to see how some in Europe represent solidarity in a political theater, making a thriller out of cereal.”
In other words, Zelensky accused Warsaw of “playing along” with Russia after Poland and other Central European countries banned imports of Ukrainian grains to protect the interests of their farmers.
Warsaw denounced the Ukrainian president’s words as “unjustified as far as Poland, which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war, is concerned.”
The grain dispute
Since the start of the invasion, Poland has sent weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and opened its borders to refugees from that country.
But the relationship between the two began to sour since last May due to a European Union (EU) agreement. that restricted imports of Ukrainian grain.
Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Black Sea sea routes that before the war were used to transport Ukrainian grain were closed.
This made the EU an important transit route and export destination for the product.
In May, the EU agreed to ban imports of Ukrainian grains to five neighboring countries: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
The countries had said that the unexpected increase in low-cost, tariff-free Ukrainian grains, was crashing prices for local farmers and causing “economic havoc.”
The agreement allowed grains to be transported across the five countries, but prohibited their sale and storage in the local market. But on September 15, the European Commission said it would end the import ban, arguing that “market distortions in the five member states bordering Ukraine have disappeared.”
Immediately, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia announced that they would defy the measure and continue with the restrictions.
In his speech to the UN, Zelensky suggested that this decision was “hypocritical and harmful” for his country.
And his words provoked an angry response from Poland, which summoned the Ukrainian ambassador and subsequently announced the end of its arms supplies to Ukraine.
“Protecting farmers”
Earlier this week, Ukraine filed lawsuits with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over bans it said constituted a violation of international obligations.
Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was “vitally important for us to demonstrate that individual member states cannot ban imports of Ukrainian products.”
But Poland said it would maintain the ban and that “a complaint to the WTO does not impress us.”
Speaking on Polish TV, Prime Minister Morawiecki insisted that Poland was helping Ukraine defeat the “Russian barbarian,” but indicated that he would not accept Poland’s markets being destabilized by grain imports.
“I am warning the Ukrainian authorities. Because if they escalate the dispute, we will add additional products to the ban on imports to Poland. The Ukrainian authorities do not understand the extent to which Poland’s agricultural industry has been destabilized. We are protecting Polish farmers,” Morawiecki declared.
Despite the ban, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia said they would continue to allow grain to be transported through their territory to other markets.
Electoral rhetoric?
Polish arms exports to Ukraine are not expected to stop completely, as Polish manufacturer PGZ is due to ship around 60 Krab artillery guns in the coming months.
Morawiecki’s announcement, experts say, is rather rhetorical since most of the military aid that Poland had available was transferred to Ukraine in the first months of the war. and has no more weapons to offer.
Government spokesman Piotr Müller later clarified that only previously agreed deliveries of ammunition and weapons would be made, including those from contracts signed with Ukraine.
Poland’s ruling party, the right-wing Law and Justice, has intensified his rhetoric in recent weeks in the middle of a bitter electoral campaign, in view of the parliamentary elections on October 15.
And on several occasions party members have come to the defense of Polish farmers who feel threatened by Ukrainian grain imports.
“We were the first to do a lot for Ukraine and that’s why we hope they understand our interests,” Morawiecki told Polsat News.
“Of course we respect all your problems, but for us the interests of our farmers are the most important thing“added the prime minister.
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