Poland will no longer supply weapons to Ukraine due to the grain dispute, the Polish Prime Minister announced. The Polish president and agriculture minister already warned the Kyiv leadership on Wednesday that they would do better not to risk the good relations between the two countries.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said

Poland would rather arm itself than send it to Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Ukrainian ambassador after Ukraine sued Poland, Slovakia and Hungary over the grain export ban.

The Polish president and agriculture minister already warned the Kyiv leadership on Wednesday that they would do better not to risk the good relations between the two countries.

The planned meeting of the Polish and Ukrainian presidents during the UN General Assembly in New York is part of the history. The meeting was supposed to be held in order to settle the tension caused by the Polish embargo on Ukrainian grain. In recent days, relations between the two countries began to deteriorate sharply, mutual messages and threatening messages were also published. According to the expert, the behavior of the Ukrainians towards the country that has so far shown itself to be the most committed in supporting the Ukrainian war efforts is incomprehensible.

Rzeczpospolita writes about the failure of the meeting between the two heads of state . According to the newspaper, Andrzej Duda was supposed to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskiy after the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, but due to changes in the schedule of the other sessions, the event was removed from the agenda.

The parties would have had something to talk about. After the Polish government extended the ban on the import of Ukrainian cereals on September 15, arguing that the European Commission's decision was against the interests of the countries neighboring Ukraine, the internal EU market and the economy of the European Union, Kiev reacted quite bluntly. "For us, it is of fundamental importance to prove that individual member states cannot ban the import of Ukrainian products," said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Szviridenko, for example.

news appeared that Ukraine is suing Poland, Hungary and Slovakia at the World Trade Organization (WTO), because the three countries refuse to lift the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products. The representative responsible for Ukrainian trade, Tarasz Kacska, stated,

the "open defiance" of the three countries with Brussels is not only an internal matter of the EU.

This was followed by the harsh words of the Polish president. Andrzej Duda told reporters in New York on Tuesday,

When making decisions regarding grain exports, Ukraine must keep in mind the kind of support it receives from Poland.

"Poland has not closed its borders to Ukrainian grain, it is implementing its agreement on transport corridors with Ukraine. Thanks to these corridors running through Poland, twice as much grain is passing through now as in February or March," Duda pointed out, adding that Warsaw has actually created a beneficial situation for Ukraine. "If Ukraine files a complaint against us in court, we will clarify this situation in court," he added.

Warsaw also announced that

Starting in 2024, it is likely to end financial support for the one million Ukrainian refugees it has taken in, which includes the removal of residence and work permit requirements, free school attendance, health care and family support.

However, the Ukrainian government also responded harshly. According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Smihal , they are ready to

ban the import of certain products from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary,

if these countries are not willing to lift the unilateral ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural and other products. If Poland, Hungary and Slovakia do not accept the measures of the European Commission, then Ukraine will introduce mutual trade restrictions, emphasized the Ukrainian Prime Minister.

At the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky also kicked his neighbors when he declared:

"Some of our European friends are feigning solidarity in the theater of politics while making a grain thriller."

According to the Ukrainian president, such countries "actually help prepare the stage for a Moscow actor."

"I honestly don't understand what the Ukrainian leadership is doing now," said Anton Bendarzhevskiy, the professional director of the Oeconomus Economic Research Foundation, in relation to the case. The expert stated that all this does not seem like a good strategy on the part of Kyiv, and even less forward-looking. In his opinion, the situation has serious weight because parliamentary elections will be held in Poland in a few weeks, which means that the "Ukrainian tension" has a serious domestic political edge as well. He added:

the Polish government will not forgive this. The only logical explanation is that Kiev would have voted for the Polish opposition,

but this also seems to be a rather bad tactic in light of the fact that, according to public opinion polls, the Polish ruling party currently stands at 39 percent, and the Civic Platform led by Donald Tusk only at 29 percent, wrote Anton Bendarzewskij.

Source: hirado.hu / civilek.info

Cover image: Illustration - MTI/EPA/PAP/Pawel Supernak