Warsaw has stopped arms supplies to Kiev and is instead focusing on arming, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday amid a row over Ukraine’s agricultural exports.
“We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine because we are now equipping Poland with more modern weapons,” Morawiecki said during an appearance on Polish TV channel Polsat, according to European Pravda. “If you don’t want to be on the defensive, you have to have something to defend yourself with,” he added, stressing, however, that the move would not endanger Ukraine’s security.
Morawiecki’s terse comments came as tensions between Kiev and the EU escalated last week after the European Commission decided to allow Ukrainian grain sales across the bloc, lifting restrictions on grain imports that five eastern EU countries had initially protected of their farmers to protect themselves from the competition.
Poland, Hungary and Slovakia responded to the Commission’s move by imposing unilateral import bans on Ukrainian grain, in apparent violation of EU internal market rules. Kiev hit back by filing complaints against the three countries at the World Trade Organization.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took a thinly veiled swipe at the imposed grain bans on Tuesday, telling the UN General Assembly: “It is alarming to see how some in Europe, some of our friends in Europe, are playing solidarity in a political theater.” A thriller at its finest. They seem to be playing their own role, but in reality they are helping to set the stage for a Moscow actor.”
While Zelensky did not specifically name-check Poland, Warsaw responded by appointing the Kiev ambassador to the Foreign Ministry.
Morawiecki also issued a “warning” to “the Ukrainian authorities,” previously telling Polsat: “If they escalate the conflict like this, we will add more products to the ban on imports to Poland. The Ukrainian authorities do not understand to what extent “Poland’s agricultural industry has been destabilized.”
Poland is in the middle of a volatile election campaign ahead of next month’s election, with the right-wing Law and Justice government fighting for re-election. While Warsaw initially threw all its weight behind the campaign to help Kiev repel Russia’s attempted invasion, this all-out support has waned as the consequences of supporting Ukraine for its own farmers have become clearer.