Poland has announced it will no longer provide arms to Kyiv, Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, told private broadcaster Polsat News, a statement indicative of the rising tensions between the two allies.

Poland will focus mainly on the modernization and rapid equipment of the Polish Army, in order to become one of the most powerful ground armies in Europe, and this in a short period of time, he explained.

Morawiecki did not specify when Poland, one of Ukraine’s top arms suppliers, stopped arming its neighbor or whether it was linked to the standoff over Ukrainian grain, imports of which Warsaw has banned to protect the interests of its farmers.

This announcement was made a few hours after Warsaw “extraordinarily” summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to protest against the statements of Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the UN. The day before yesterday, Tuesday, Zelensky denounced that some countries are hindering solidarity with Ukraine by indirectly supporting Russia.

Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Pawel Yablonski, who met with the Ukrainian ambassador, denounced this “false claim”, which he described as particularly unfair to Poland, which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war.

Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary announced restrictions on grain imports from Ukraine on Friday after the European Commission decided not to extend a ban on sales to five of Ukraine’s European neighbors, which also include Romania and Bulgaria.

Also read: Fidan | There is no other grain solution other than the original Ukraine – Russia deal

In response, Kyiv announced that it would appeal to the World Trade Organization. Reacting yesterday, Wednesday, Morawiecki warned that his country could ban the import of other Ukrainian products.

Pressuring Poland in international fora or filing appeals in international courts are not appropriate methods to resolve differences between countries, the Polish diplomacy commented in a statement.

Ukraine is asking Poland to set emotions aside, Oleh Nikolenko stated, the representative of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, after Warsaw announced that it was calling the Ukrainian ambassador to protest. Denouncing the unacceptable character – for Ukraine – of Poland’s unilateral ban on Ukrainian grain imports, Nikolenko added that the Ukrainian side offered Poland a constructive solution to the grain problem.

He also criticized the “wrong nature” of the statements of the Polish President, Andrzej Duda, who, speaking to journalists in New York, compared Ukraine to a drowning man who risks dragging to the bottom and drowning anyone who tries to save it, an insinuation for his country.

Source: Euronews

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