Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday (September 20) that his country would no longer send weapons to Ukraine and would instead concentrate on its own defense. The comments came just hours after Warsaw summoned Kiev’s ambassador amid a dispute over grain exports.
“We are no longer sending weapons to Ukraine as we are now equipping Poland with more modern weapons,” Morawiecki said. “Ukraine is defending itself against Russia’s brutal attack, and I understand this situation, but we will defend our country,” he added.
The prime minister’s comments came in response to reporters’ questions about whether Warsaw would continue to support Kiev despite the dispute over food exports.
Poland summons the Ukrainian ambassador
Also on Wednesday, Poland announced its decision to recall its ambassador from Kiev following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments at the United Nations General Assembly.
Speaking about grain exports, Zelensky accused some nations of feigning solidarity with Ukraine. Warsaw condemned his comments as “unjustified towards Poland, which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war.”
Poland played a key role in supplying weapons to Ukraine, supplying military equipment such as MiG29s and Leopard main battle tanks and allowing foreign allies to store and transport weapons across the Polish border into Ukraine.
In March this year, Poland became the first NATO member to promise Kiev fighter jets, starting with deliveries in early April. Poland also took in around a million Ukrainian refugees.
Tensions between the two countries have escalated in recent days as Poland imposed a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain to protect the interests of its own farmers.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine closed the Black Sea shipping routes used before the war. Russia has reached an agreement allowing the sea export of grain from Ukraine. However, the agreement expired in July.
This has made the European Union (EU) indispensable as a transit route and export destination for Ukrainian grain.
Aiming to protect farmers in countries that complained about a drop in local prices due to imports, the EU agreed in May to restrict imports to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The measures allowed crops to continue to be transported across the five countries, but without being sold in these markets.
However, last week the European Commission announced the end of the import ban, claiming that “market distortions have disappeared in the five Member States bordering Ukraine”. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia responded immediately by declaring that they would not comply with the decision. Ukraine then stated that it intended to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO).
IP/CN (AFP, LUSA)
The war in pictures: notes from the PolishUkrainian border
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