Poland’s prime minister said in a statement on Wednesday that his country was no longer supplying weapons to Kiev because it was concentrating on its own rearmament. Hours after Warsaw “urgently” summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to protest President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments at the United Nations.
“We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine because we are equipping ourselves with the most modern weapons,” explained Mateusz Morawiecki in an interview with the private broadcaster Polsat News about Poland’s military and humanitarian support for Ukraine. Ukraine despite grain conflict.
The prime minister did not say when Poland, one of Ukraine’s biggest arms suppliers, stopped deliveries or whether it had anything to do with the grain conflict.
“We are mainly focusing on modernizing and rapidly arming the Polish army so that it becomes one of the most powerful land armies in Europe in the shortest possible time,” he said.
He also said that the military center in the city of Rzeszow in the southeast of the country, through which Western equipment for Ukraine is transported, was functioning normally.
These statements come hours after Warsaw issued an “emergency” summons to Ukraine’s ambassador to protest President Volodymyr Zelensky’s remarks at the United Nations.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president denounced that “certain countries are feigning solidarity (with Ukraine, editor’s note) by indirectly supporting Russia.”
The Polish Deputy Foreign Minister, who received the Ukrainian diplomat, condemned as a “false thesis regarding Poland and especially regarding Poland, which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war,” the press release said Ministry.
Tensions between Warsaw and Kiev, caused by the conflict over Ukrainian grain, whose imports Poland has banned to protect the interests of its farmers, have increased in recent days.
Brussels’ announcement on Friday that it would lift the end of the import ban on Ukrainian grain imposed by five EU states in May inflamed tempers and provoked unilateral embargoes, to which Kiev responded on Monday by announcing that it would lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO ).
Poland’s prime minister warned on Wednesday that he would expand the list of Ukrainian products banned from imports if Kiev escalates its conflict over a grain embargo.
Ukrainian diplomacy reacted quickly, calling on Poland to “put aside emotions” and adopt a “constructive” approach to the dispute over grain exports.