Ukraine and Poland have staged at the highest level and in public the deep disagreement that exists between both countries over the Ukrainian grain exportan issue that goes beyond the solidarity that Warsaw has shown since the war and that kyiv has decided to take to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Tensions between President Vladimir Zelenski and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda have reached such an extreme that the bilateral meeting they had scheduled to hold this Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly has been cancelled, according to the Polish newspaper. Republic. They allude to “scheduling problems.”
But the decision may have been made in the heat of the moment, after Poland and other countries in the area decided at the beginning of the week to maintain the Ukrainian grain embargo ignoring the European Union. In statements reported by the Polish press in New York, Zelensky accused Russia of taking advantage of the food crisis caused by itself to force territorial concessions, but also criticized “the apparent solidarity of some European allies of Ukraine, whose policies, however, , they support Russia,” he said.
“It is disturbing to see how some in Europe pretend to support us, but in the process turn the grain issue into a thriller political. They may think they are playing an independent role, but in reality They are paving the way for Russia’s plans“Zelensky said, without naming specific countries.
The Polish delegation, however, took the hint and, after his intervention in the General Assembly, President Duda openly criticized Ukraine, underlining the need to protect Polish interests. He explained that Poland had not closed the borders to Ukrainian grain, but had established special transport corridors which had been coordinated in consultation with kyiv. “These corridors made it possible to transport twice as much grain through Poland as in February or March of this year,” he noted. In doing so, he metaphorically compared Ukraine’s performance to the desperation of a drowning man.