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Article related informationReporter, Antoinette Radford, BBC News
an hour ago
Poland, considered one of Ukraine’s strongest allies, announced on the 20th (local time) that it would no longer provide arms to Ukraine as diplomatic conflict over the ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products intensified.
The Polish prime minister said he would instead focus on arming Poland with modern weapons.
The move was announced amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
The Polish government summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland on the 19th to express its protest against President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s remarks at the UN General Assembly.
The day before, during his speech, President Zelenskyy said that some countries that chose to extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian grains were feigning solidarity with Ukraine, to which Poland responded by saying, “It is unfair to Poland, which has supported Ukraine from the first day of the war.” criticized.
As tensions between the two countries over grain imports rapidly increased, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced in a televised speech on the 20th that he had decided not to provide any more weapons to Ukraine.
This grain dispute occurred when Russia invaded Ukraine and major grain routes in the Black Sea were closed. As a result, Ukraine began exporting grains through alternative land routes, resulting in large quantities of grains being concentrated in central Europe.
Accordingly, the European Union (EU) temporarily banned the import of Ukrainian grains from five countries, including Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, to protect farmers who were concerned about a decline in the prices of their own agricultural products.
However, this ban expired on the 15th of this month and it was decided not to renew it, but Hungary, Slovakia and Poland decided to extend it.
The European Commission has repeatedly stated that individual EU member states do not have the authority to determine EU trade policy.
Earlier this week, Ukraine filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the countries that implemented the ban, saying it was a violation of international law obligations.
Ukrainian Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko explained, “The issue is proving that individual member states cannot ban the import of Ukrainian products.”
However, Poland expressed its intention to maintain the ban, adding, “The World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint does not leave a very deep impression on us.”
Additionally, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland have announced that they will implement the ban but will still allow grain from Ukraine to be transported through their territories to other markets.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called the tensions “regrettable”, saying EU findings showed that grain imports from Ukraine would not put European farmers in trouble.
Meanwhile, Poland, which keeps Russia in check, urged Germany to provide Ukraine with the Leopard-2 tank and promised to provide its own fighter jets, as well as welcoming more than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine. actively helped.
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2023-09-21 04:10:03
