Poland announced the cessation of supplies of any weapons to Ukraine. The head of the Polish government, Mateusz Morawiecki, announced this on September 20 in an interview with Polsat News.
“Poland no longer transfers any weapons to Ukraine. We arm ourselves with the most modern weapons,” the portal Wgospodarce quotes him as saying.
Morawiecki said that the Polish government is relying on modernization and active armament of the army so that it will become one of the strongest in Europe in a short time.
“If you don’t want to fight back, then you need to have something to defend yourself with — this is the principle that we adhere to, so we relied on increasing [military] orders,” he emphasized.
The Polish Prime Minister added that he was at the arms factory in Radom on Wednesday. Weapons production is in full swing there. Just like in many other factories in the country.
When asked whether this decision by Poland was a retaliatory measure in the conflict with Kiev over the supply of Ukrainian grain, he replied that Warsaw continues to side with Ukraine in the fight, but cannot agree to the collapse of the Polish market. He added that the government had to respect the interests of farmers and guarantee the price for Polish grain at the level of the spring of this year, and it did so.
“We have fulfilled all our promises, and I do not see a threat now from Ukrainian grain, because we have blocked this import,” he emphasized.
Ukrainian-Polish relations have deteriorated due to Warsaw’s grain embargo. Earlier in the day, Morawiecki said Poland would expand the food embargo if Ukraine continued its escalation. He noted that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s accusations against Poland sounded “out of place.”
On September 19, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine Taras Kachka announced a retaliatory measure to Poland’s gesture to ban Ukrainian grain. He threatened to impose an embargo on some Polish vegetables in the coming days.
On September 18, the head of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture called the resolution of the grain issue a condition for Ukraine’s admission to the EU. Robert Telus clarified that Poland, before being accepted into the EU, fulfilled a number of stringent conditions.
On September 15, the European Commission decided not to extend restrictions on the import of four types of Ukrainian agricultural products into several border countries of the union, which have been in place since May, but at the same time obliged Kyiv to introduce export control measures.
Despite this, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary decided to extend the embargo. These countries are concerned that the cheap Ukrainian grain that has flooded the European market is harming local farmers who are unable to withstand this competition. In Poland, Ukrainian grain was called a threat to EU member countries, which could destabilize their domestic markets.