Poland stops sending weapons to Ukraine

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announces that the country will stop sending weapons to Ukraine, reports the Polish news agency PAP.

The announcement can be seen against the background of continued tension between neighboring countries due to Ukrainian grain exports.

Earlier in the day, Poland summoned Ukraine’s ambassador because of statements that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi made in his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Zelenskyy said some countries are pretending to stand in solidarity with Ukraine, prompting Poland to condemn comments that are “unfair to Poland, which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war.”

Hurt his lifeguard

But Polish leaders have, according to the AP news agency, compared Ukraine to a person who is drowning and at the same time trying to harm his lifeguard.

The dispute concerns the sensitive issue of exports to EU countries of Ukrainian grain.

Since June and until last week, Ukraine’s grain exports to the EU have been subject to import bans in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. The reason is that the countries’ agricultural sectors have repeatedly complained about the difficulty of competing with the large influx from the war-torn country in the east.

But last week the European Commission put an end to the import bans – something that was not well received by the countries concerned. Several of them have announced that they will defy the EU’s order.

Tried to calm down

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned on Wednesday that the list of Ukrainian products subject to import bans will grow if Kiev escalates the grain issue.

After the ambassador was summoned, Ukraine asked Poland to “put feelings aside”.

“We urge our Polish friends to put their feelings aside. The Ukrainian side has offered Poland a constructive way to resolve the grain issue,” said Oleh Nikolenko, spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.