Nothing is going well between Warsaw and kyiv, although they are allies. Poland announced Wednesday evening that it was no longer transferring “any weapons to Ukraine”, at a key moment in the counter-offensive against Russia.
“We are mainly focusing on modernizing and rapidly arming the Polish army, so that it becomes one of the most powerful land armies in Europe, and this in a very short time,” explained the Prime Minister. Polish Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, on private television Polsat News. He further clarified that the military hub located in the town of Rzeszow, in the southeast of the country, through which Western equipment destined for Ukraine passes, was functioning normally.
Warsaw summons Ukrainian ambassador
The Prime Minister, however, did not indicate when Poland, one of the largest suppliers of arms to Ukraine, had stopped supplying them, nor if this had a link with the conflict over Ukrainian grain, including Warsaw. banned imports to protect the interests of its farmers.
His announcement comes a few hours after Warsaw’s “emergency” summons of the Ukrainian ambassador to protest against Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments at the UN. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president criticized the fact that “some countries are feigning solidarity (with Ukraine) by indirectly supporting Russia.” The Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, who received the Ukrainian diplomat, denounced this “false thesis” and “particularly unjustified concerning Poland which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war”.
The announcement by Brussels on Friday of the end of the ban on the import of Ukrainian cereals, pronounced in May by five EU states, inflamed tempers, provoking unilateral embargoes to which Kiev responded on Monday by announcing to file a complaint before the World Trade Organization (WTO). In response, the Polish Prime Minister warned on Wednesday that he would expand the list of Ukrainian products banned from import.
Polish President Compares Ukraine to a Drowning Man
“Pressuring Poland in multilateral forums or sending complaints to international courts are not appropriate methods for resolving disputes between our countries,” warned Polish diplomacy. “We call on our Polish friends to put emotion aside,” reacted the spokesperson for Ukrainian diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko, after Warsaw announced the summons of the Ukrainian ambassador.
He also deplored “the incorrect nature” of the remarks made by Polish President Andrzej Duda during a meeting with the media in New York. He notably compared Ukraine to a drowning man, risking dragging to the bottom and also drowning the one who seeks to save him (Poland).
France deplored this situation between the two countries on Wednesday. “These tensions are regrettable,” declared Catherine Colonna, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, seeing it as a reflection of “domestic political considerations”. The head of French diplomacy, who spoke after an exceptional Security Council on the occasion of Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the UN, insisted on the fact that Brussels’ decision to end the ban on Importing Ukrainian grain did not result in “a break in competition” or disruption of grain markets.