Poland-Ukraine relations deteriorate amid grain export dispute
Poland has suspended arms shipments to Ukraine, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced Wednesday, in a move that could jeopardise Kyiv's chances of launching a counteroffensive against Russian invaders in the south and east of the country.
"We are no longer transferring any weapons to Ukraine," Morawiecki told a Polish TV station. "We are focusing primarily on the rapid modernization and arming of the Polish army, so that it becomes one of the strongest ground armies in Europe, and that in a very short time," he continued.
The official also clarified that the military hub located in the city of Rzeszow, in southeastern Poland, through which Western equipment destined for Ukraine passes, is operating normally. Morawiecki did not specify when Poland, one of Ukraine's largest arms suppliers, stopped supplying them, nor whether this is related to the conflict over Ukrainian grain, with his government banning their import to protect the interests of Polish farmers.
His announcement came a few hours after the Ukrainian ambassador was summoned "urgently" to Warsaw to protest the comments of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the UN. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president said that "some countries pretend to be in solidarity with Ukraine, but are indirectly supporting Russia."
The Polish deputy foreign minister, who received the Ukrainian diplomat, denounced this "false thesis" and "especially unjustified as far as Poland is concerned, which has been supporting Ukraine since the first days of the war."
Ukrainian grain has shaken relations between allies
The announcement by the European Union on Friday of the lifting of the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain, imposed in May by five EU countries, inflamed tensions, triggering unilateral embargoes to which Ukraine responded on Monday by announcing that it would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization.
In response, the Polish prime minister warned on Wednesday that he would expand the list of Ukrainian products banned from import. "Putting pressure on Poland in multilateral forums or filing complaints with international tribunals are not appropriate methods for resolving disputes between our countries," the Polish foreign ministry warned in a statement.
"We call on our Polish friends to put their emotions aside," said Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko after Poland announced the summoning of the Ukrainian ambassador. Denouncing "the unacceptable nature for Ukraine of Poland's unilateral ban on imports of Ukrainian grain," Nikolenko added that "the Ukrainian side has proposed a constructive solution to the grain problem to Poland."
The Ukrainian official also spoke about what he called the "incorrectness" of the remarks made by Polish President Andrzej Duda in New York. Duda compared Ukraine to "a drowning man, risking dragging him down and also drowning the one who is trying to save him."
Translation by Iurie Tataru
