Poland and Canada are discussing exports of Ukrainian grain to countries that need it, Poland’s prime minister said Monday, as Polish farmers block border crossings and dump Ukrainian shipments.
“We discussed how Canada and Poland could significantly increase export opportunities for Ukrainian grain to countries experiencing famine and need,” said Donald Tusk.
Warsaw “is ready to actively participate, and even co-finance such activities,” he added, during a joint press conference with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau.
According to Tusk, such actions “could be of great help to Polish and European farmers, to Ukraine and to those waiting for cheap food in other parts of the world.”
For weeks, farmers have been protesting en masse in Poland, as well as in other European countries, against imports of Ukrainian agro-foodstuffs, considered non-compliant with European standards and much cheaper than local products, as well as against European regulations of the Green Deal.
On Sunday, eight wagons containing corn, coming from Ukraine, according to kyiv, were opened and their contents dumped on a railway in Poland, a fourth incident of this type in recent days.
According to the Polish Prime Minister, a solution to this crisis must be found quickly.
“Brussels, as well as kyiv, must understand that maintaining the current situation is unacceptable for hundreds of thousands of hard-working people in Poland or in Europe, that we must find a solution that will not harm Ukraine,” he said. -he said, emphasizing that Polish farmers could not “be the victims” of this situation.
Poland has been among Ukraine’s greatest supporters since the launch of the Russian offensive in February 2022, but their relations have been poisoned in recent months by commercial disputes, in particular by the opening, by Brussels, of European borders to products Ukrainian farmers.
“We must find a solution, and not look for what could divide us, because that would be the greatest idiocy in the history of our nations [polonaise et ukrainienne] than quarrel now […]because we need each other like never before,” declared Mr. Tusk, assuring his country’s firm support for Ukraine.