(Warsaw) Poland “urgently” summoned the Ukrainian ambassador on Wednesday to protest against President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments at the UN, the Polish Foreign Ministry announced.
Kyiv responded by inviting the Polish side to “put emotion aside”.
The Polish approach targets the remarks made on Tuesday by Mr. Zelensky, according to which “certain countries feign solidarity (with regard to Ukraine, Editor’s note) by indirectly supporting Russia”.
The Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, who received the Ukrainian diplomat, denounced this “false thesis with regard to Poland and particularly unjustified concerning Poland which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war”, according to the ministry’s press release.
Tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv, caused by the conflict over Ukrainian grain, imports of which Poland has banned to protect the interests of its farmers, have increased in recent days.
The announcement by Brussels on Friday of the end of the ban on the import of Ukrainian cereals, a decision taken in May by five EU states, inflamed tempers, provoking unilateral embargoes to which Kyiv responded on Monday by announcing to file a complaint before the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned on Wednesday that he would expand the list of Ukrainian products banned from importing if Kyiv were to escalate their conflict over a grain embargo.
The statement from Polish diplomacy states that “putting pressure on Poland in multilateral forums or sending complaints to international courts are not appropriate methods for resolving disputes between our countries.”
“Put emotion aside”
Ukrainian diplomacy reacted quickly by calling on Poland to “put emotion aside” and adopt a “constructive” approach in the dispute over grain exports.
“We call on our Polish friends to put emotion aside,” wrote the spokesperson for Ukrainian diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko, on Facebook after Warsaw announced the summons of the Ukrainian ambassador.
The latter, specifies the spokesperson, recalled the Ukrainian position “concerning the unacceptable nature for Ukraine of Poland’s unilateral ban on imports of Ukrainian cereals”.
“The Ukrainian side offered Poland a constructive solution to the grain problem. We hope that our proposals will serve as a basis for moving the dialogue in a constructive direction,” added Mr. Nikolenko.
He also deplored “the incorrect nature” of the remarks made by Polish President Andrzej Duda during a meeting with the media in New York. Mr. Duda compared Ukraine to a drowning man who risks dragging to the bottom and also drowning the one who seeks to save him (Poland).