Days after the dispute between Kiev and Warsaw – where elections are three weeks away – worsened to the point where the Polish government raised the possibility of no longer donating weapons to the warring neighboring country, Duda’s statements in an attempt to relieve tension.
“I think it is right that the Polish government maintained the ban on the sale of Ukrainian grains on the Polish market. However, I am convinced that everything should be done to ensure the greatest possible transit,” Duda told the public channel TVP1.
“Unfortunately, during the war this grain barely reached the countries that really needed it, while at the same time it flooded markets such as the Polish one,” he noted.
However, the Polish president stated that it is “completely untrue” that imports have completely stopped and said that transit through Poland continues to take place through special corridors created for this purpose.
Duda stated that the difficult situation forced the Warsaw government to take “radical” measures to support its farmers, in the absence of support from Brussels, and unilaterally extend its veto on the import of Ukrainian products after the restrictions imposed on them imposed had expired. .
However, the Polish president avoided further criticism of Ukraine after, in a verbal escalation last Wednesday, describing the Kiev government as a “man who is drowning and clinging to everything he can” and for whom it is legitimate to “self to protect”. .
These statements came after Ukraine filed a complaint against Poland with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and threatened to ban the import of Polish agricultural products.
A meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was supposed to take place last week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, was officially canceled due to time constraints.
On Saturday, on his return trip to Ukraine, Zelensky nevertheless made a surprise visit to the city of Lublin, in eastern Poland, where he met with members of civil society and thanked “all of Poland” for their “invaluable support”.
Following the lifting of community restrictions imposed at the request of Ukraine’s neighbors, Kiev reached an agreement in principle with Romania and Slovakia, but Poland and Hungary still maintain it.
Source: DN
