Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and president Adrzej Duda.
Foreign ties between Ukraine and its neighbor and backer Poland continue to unravel.
Ukraine’s decision to file a complaint against Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in the WTO has soured the relation and led to Warsaw’s announcement that it will no longer send weapons to Kiev.
Zelensky tried to lower the political temperature, but that is perhaps not his strong suit – as he called on Poles ‘not to hold a political concert’:
Ukraine watch reported:
“We have all agreed that there is a date when the restrictions will end. And this date is 15 September. That is the last date of the blockade. There was such an agreement. And everyone understood that if there is a blockade after this date, Ukraine will choose the legal process. This is not news to anyone. There is no need to turn this into some kind of political concert. This is a civilised decision so that Ukrainians, farmers and the budget receive purely economic compensation.”
WATCH: Polish Ticktokers knock Zelensky asking for ‘more’, ‘more’, as the mood in Poland sours towards Ukraine.
In Poland, President Duda plays good cop, apparently trying to cool down things, but Prime Minister Morawiecki is playing bad cop with undiminished vehemence.
Reuters reported:
“Poland’s prime minister told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday not to ‘insult’ Poles, maintaining harsh rhetoric towards Kyiv after the Polish president had sought to defuse a simmering row over grain imports.
Poland decided last week to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports, shaking Kiev’s relationship with a neighbour that has been seen as one of its staunchest allies since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.”
Besides the WTO beef, Zelensky further angered his neighbors when he told the UN General Assembly that the ‘political theatre’ around grain imports was helping Moscow.
“‘I want to tell President Zelensky never to insult Poles again, as he did recently during his speech at the U.N.’, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told an election rally.”
With a looming October parliamentary election, Morawiecki’s ruling Law and Justice party wants to dispel opposition criticisms over the government’s ‘subservient attitude’ to Ukraine.
President Andrzej Duda, on the other hand, said the dispute between Poland and Ukraine would not significantly affect good bilateral relations.
“I have no doubt that the dispute over the supply of grain from Ukraine to the Polish market is an absolute fragment of the entire Polish-Ukrainian relations. I don’t believe that it can have a significant impact on them, so we need to solve this matter between us.”
Read more about the Grain Ban:
Slovakia, Poland and Hungary imposed unilateral restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports. The countries have argued that cheap Ukrainian agricultural goods harm their own farmers.
Provocative Belarusian President Lukashenko also weighed in, and stated that Poland’s new attitude towards Ukraine was ordered from on down below by the US and NATO, as reported in Slavyangrad:
Lukashenko: “Do you think that Poland is just crushing this poor Ukraine today? No, they’ve already given the go-ahead from overseas: ‘we should dump this Zelensky, we’ve had enough of him’. [After] tomorrow’s elections in America, no one will even look at it.”
Read more about it:
The post Polish PM Morawiecki Warns Zelensky ‘Never to Insult Poles Again’, as Grain Ban Feud Intensifies After Warsaw Decision Not to Send Any More Weapons appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
