Warsaw and Kyiv announced on Tuesday a decision involving Lithuania which will accelerate the transit of Ukrainian grain to other countries, a first agreement between the two countries since the announcement in mid-September of a Polish embargo on imports.
“We have agreed on an important issue,” Robert Telus, Polish Minister of Agriculture, told the press after an online tripartite meeting. “From tomorrow, checks (which were to be carried out, editor’s note) at the Ukrainian-Polish border for grain transiting through Lithuania will be carried out on Lithuanian territory, in a Lithuanian port.”
“Lithuania takes full responsibility for these inspections,” he said.
Mr. Telus also assured that Poland will continue to build transit corridors, “because it is good for Polish farmers, for Ukraine, for the European Union and for the whole world, since grain from Ukraine should be sent to regions that lack them.
This is a first agreement between Poland and Ukraine since the start of a diplomatic crisis between the two countries caused by the Polish embargo on Ukrainian grain imports. Warsaw has indicated that it wants to protect its market and its farmers against the collapse of the prices of these products.
The transit of Ukrainian grain through Poland to other countries remained authorized.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture, the decision taken on Tuesday “will help speed up transit through Poland”.
In a statement, the ministry also said that Warsaw and Vilnius “support such a control mechanism and consider it a constructive step.”
Since the launch in February 2022 of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which hinders access to the Black Sea, Kyiv’s neighboring countries have become essential for the transit of Ukrainian cereals to Africa and the Middle East.
Ukraine’s neighbors experienced an influx of grain after European Union tariffs were lifted in May 2022. Instead of reaching their desired destinations, grain remained in Central Europe due to logistical problems, massive fraud and a lack of supervision.
Following the saturation of silos and the collapse of local prices, several countries concerned decreed a unilateral embargo in the spring.
Brussels formally approved these restrictions, on a temporary basis and subject to maintaining the passage of cereals to other destinations.
But the agreement expired in mid-September and the European Commission decided not to renew it. Kyiv promised in exchange measures to better control its export flows.
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia responded by extending the embargo, leading Ukraine to file a complaint with the WTO.
The embargo caused a crisis in relations between kyiv and Warsaw. Negotiations on the possibility of authorizing imports of Ukrainian grain into Poland have been undertaken but are progressing slowly.
At the end of September, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba declared that neither Ukraine nor Poland had “need this grain war”, believing that the electoral campaign for the legislative elections of October 15 in its neighbor and ally was fueling the tensions.