DUnited by their common archenemy: This sums up the relationship between the governments in Warsaw and Kiev since the beginning of Russia’s major attack on Ukraine. There are still around a million war refugees in Poland. Warsaw has moved ahead with the delivery of battle tanks and fighter jets when other members of the Western alliance were still hesitant.
However, the image of best friends propagated by both sides, for example through early visits by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to Kiev and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj to Warsaw, has long since started to crack. In April, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia blocked imports of Ukrainian grain. Shortly afterwards, the EU also imposed import restrictions. These expired a few days ago. Ukraine announced that it would file a lawsuit against a new Polish import ban before the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Attack on Zelensky and Berlin
A completely new quality is now that the dispute over grain has expanded into a dispute over military cooperation. “We are no longer supplying weapons to Ukraine because we are now equipping ourselves with the most modern weapons,” Morawiecki said on Wednesday evening. “Ukraine is defending itself against a brutal Russian attack, and I understand this situation, but as I said, we will protect our country,” said the Polish leader. Government spokesman Piotr Müller made it clear on Thursday that Poland was only carrying out previously agreed deliveries. The German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius then announced that he would seek talks with his Polish counterpart Mariusz Błaszczak.
Another novelty is the sharp tone adopted by the national conservatives in power in Warsaw. On Thursday, Błaszczak called Zelensky’s push for a permanent seat for Germany on the UN Security Council “pretty strange” and a “big disappointment” – and attacked Berlin in passing, accusing Zelensky of a lack of memory of initially hesitant German arms deliveries and the demand for German reparations renewed for the Second World War. President Andrzej Duda added another metaphor by comparing Ukraine to a drowning man trying to drag others along. According to Prime Minister Morawiecki, these were “very apt words”.
Circles critical of the government in Poland also do not agree with Kiev’s approach to the grain dispute. Ukraine should not make enemies of its closest neighbors, the daily newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” commented on the conflict. On Thursday afternoon it was announced that the agriculture ministers of both countries wanted to work on a solution. Apparently one has already been found between Ukraine and Slovakia. According to Slovakia, a licensing system for grain trade has been agreed. Kiev would therefore refrain from filing a lawsuit against the government in Bratislava.
A possible solution to the grain dispute with Kiev alone is unlikely to bring about a thaw before the Polish parliamentary elections on October 15th. The ruling PiS party is also fighting to woo away as many voters as possible from the even further right-wing “confederation”. This has always been against aid to Ukraine.
#Weapons #deliveries #grain #Poland #Ukraine #confrontation