Poland asks US to calm Ukrainians
Warsaw hopes Washington will intervene in grain conflict with kyiv, says Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk
Washington should intervene in the ongoing diplomatic dispute between Warsaw and Kiev over Ukrainian grain, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk said in an interview with RMF24 radio on Friday.
“I hope that these unfortunate statements by Ukrainian politicians will end and the grain conflict will end,” he told the station, adding that “U.S. participation would calm hot Ukrainian heads.”
The official stressed that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and other officials in his government “are behaving absolutely unfairly towards Poland” and that Warsaw will not allow such insults to persist after the support it has given to Kiev throughout throughout the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. “Poland didn’t deserve this,” he said.
The Deputy Foreign Minister stressed the need to immediately resolve all misunderstandings between Warsaw and Kiev, stressing that the grain conflict serves neither Poland nor Ukraine and only distracts from their “common cause to defeat Russia.
Mularczyk also spoke about EU efforts to help resolve the dispute and criticized demands from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Poland lift its embargo on Ukrainian grain.
“Thank you for this help, where Poland was ordered above our heads to open its Polish borders to Ukrainian grain, the aim of which is to put an end to Polish agriculture and Polish farmers. Mrs von der Leyen is not the president or prime minister of Poland, and these issues are decided in Poland, not in Brussels,” he said.
Mularczyk’s comments come after the European Commission decided last week not to extend restrictions on the import of Ukrainian grain to the EU. The move, however, prompted Poland, Hungary and Slovakia to unilaterally ban Kiev’s products, arguing that the influx of cheap Ukrainian grain would harm their farmers and destabilize the agricultural market.
In turn, Kiev called the unilateral embargoes “illegal” and filed complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the three countries while also pledging to ban the import of fruits and vegetables from Poland.
In Friday’s interview, Mularczyk also claimed that the dispute stemmed from the interests of Ukrainian oligarchs. “For these large global farms and oligarchs from Ukraine, it is better to sell grain to Poland, because it is the cheapest, closest to a large market and most convenient way to transport them.”
The official reiterated that Poland remains open for transit and that these grains can freely enter France, Germany and Spain but will not be allowed to reach Poland and “wipe out Polish agriculture.”
(RT.com)
