WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Friday called on Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky to “never insult” the Poles again, amid a dispute between their two countries over trade in Ukrainian grain.
Poland, one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters since the Russian invasion of that country in February 2022, announced last week that it would maintain its ban on Ukrainian grain imports into its territory in order to preserve its farmers.
Volodimir Zelensky criticized this Polish decision, judging from the platform of the United Nations General Assembly that it only served the interests of Russia, which angered the Polish government.
“I (…) want to tell President Zelensky never again to insult the Poles, as he did recently during a speech at the UN,” Mateusz Morawiecki was quoted as saying by the news agency. Polish PAP.
Polish President Andrzej Duda had previously tried to ease these tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv by saying that the dispute over Ukrainian grain would not deeply affect relations between the two countries.
“I have no doubt that the dispute over the supply of grain from Ukraine to the Polish market is absolutely only a fragment of the entire relationship between Poland and the “Ukraine,” Andrzej Duda said.
(Written by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Camille Raynaud)
©2023 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.