For long, very long months it was the proudest ally of Kiev and the anti-Russian “armed resistance” at all costs on the European front. Like perhaps only the three Baltic countries. But now the iron axis between Poland and Ukraine, whose cracks have been visible for several months, is creaking terribly. Warsaw Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki made the explosive announcement on television this evening: “Poland will stop military aid to Ukraine because it has to upgrade its army,” the nationalist Prime Minister chanted. “Ukraine is defending itself against a brutal attack by Russia, and I understand this situation, but as I said, we will defend our country.” We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming Poland.” Is it possible in a a few sentences to bury months of foreign policy and defense of the country from which weapons and aid supplies of all kinds are sent to the NATO front in Ukraine every day? Apart from the military needs of the Warsaw Army itself, the problem that has brought relations between the two countries to the most critical point in years is of a different nature and has to do with wheat. In the absence of EU “coverage” since last Friday, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary have actually announced in recent days the imposition of a new unilateral ban on grain imports from Ukraine. The three Eastern European countries, together with Bulgaria, have been demanding measures for months against what their respective farmers complain about is an “invasion of wheat” from Ukraine that is having a dampening effect on raw material prices and their sales.
Zelensky’s attack on the UN and Polish anger
An internal political pressure that is rising again in Poland, where the ruling party (PiS) is expected to hold crucial political elections in less than a month (October 15) and has no intention of alienating campaigners’ support. However, the issue, which has already caused serious tensions between the countries involved in recent months, has exploded in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said nothing in his speech to the UN General Assembly, saying that the politicization of the wheat export issue by “some European allies is playing into Russia’s hands.” Utmost indignation at Warsaw, which today reacted with diplomatic vehemence and summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to the country to seek clarifications on the statement. Then, this evening, Prime Minister Morawiecki’s shocking announcement on weapons. And if the thread that closely binds Poland and Ukraine were to break, someone in the Kremlin would uncork a bottle.
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