Polish President Andrzej Duda on Friday downplayed the significance of recent disagreements between Poland and Ukraine over Ukrainian grain exports to Poland and Warsaw’s announcement that it would stop supplying arms to Kyiv.
I do not believe that one political and legal dispute can erase what you have achieved.
Duda also thanked Polish business for helping war-suffering Ukraine.
“This is absolutely crucial for what is most important, that is, for Ukraine to survive.”
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that Warsaw would stop supplying Polish arms to Ukraine over a dispute on the export of Ukrainian grain to Poland. He said cheap grain would hit Polish farmers, a key group of supporters of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party ahead of the 15 October general election.
Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau stated in an interview with Politico on Friday that millions of victims of Russia’s military actions in Ukraine had found refuge in neighbouring Poland. He said that Poland was the first to come to Ukraine’s aid and believe in its victory.
While other allies concluded that it was too late to arm the country. Tanks donated by Poland helped defend Kyiv and Polish-made howitzers helped liberate Russian-occupied territories in the Kharkov and Kherson regions.
In the interview, Rau also noted that the support provided to Ukraine was in Poland’s national interest. However, he further added that the route of emergency transit of Ukrainian grain through Poland and its neighbors to traditional recipients outside Europe “eventually turned out to be a scheme that allows unlimited sale of grain on the Polish market.”
In the first four months of 2023, 600 times more wheat was exported from Ukraine to Poland than a year earlier, causing market disruptions and losses for Polish farmers.
