MainNews -

Poland stops supplying weapons to Kyiv - PM Morawiecki

He noted that Warsaw is focusing on its own armament instead. Polish Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski, on the other hand, says he will support Kyiv until victory. 

Poland stops supplying weapons to Kyiv - PM Morawiecki
Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki
Photo: EPA/UPG

Warsaw stops supplying weapons to Kyiv and instead focuses on its own armament.

This was stated on Wednesday by Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki, Politico reports citing Polsat.

"We no longer supply weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons," Morawiecki said.

"If you don't want to defend yourself, you need to have something to protect yourself with," he added, insisting that the move would not jeopardise Ukraine's security.

Moravetsky's comments come amid heightened tensions between Kyiv and the EU last week after the European Commission decided to allow the sale of Ukrainian grain across the bloc, lifting grain import restrictions that five eastern EU countries had initially sought to protect their farmers from competition.

Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia reacted to the Commission's decision by imposing unilateral bans on Ukrainian grain imports, in clear violation of EU internal market rules. Kyiv responded by filing lawsuits against the three countries at the World Trade Organisation.

Morawiecki also "conveyed a warning to the Ukrainian authorities that in the event of such further escalation of the conflict, we will add additional products to the ban on imports to Poland. The Ukrainian authorities do not understand the extent to which Poland's agricultural sector is destabilised."

At the same time, Polish Vice Prime Minister and head of the ruling Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski said that Warsaw would support Ukraine despite the dispute over grain, polskieradio24.pl reports.

"We want and will support Ukraine on this [defence] front. But we did it for fundamental reasons, because of the values we profess - our commitment to freedom, including the freedom of nations, and in the name of our state intelligence. But in no way, if we are talking about this implicit agreement between us and the Ukrainians, was there a clause that we would eliminate Polish agriculture through this defence," he said.

Kaczynski added that "this sad situation [with Ukrainian grain] does not change anything in our attitude towards an independent Ukraine. We will support it until victory."

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticised the introduction of grain bans in a slightly veiled manner, telling the UN General Assembly: "It is disturbing to see how some in Europe, some of our friends in Europe, are playing out solidarity in the political theater, creating a thriller from scratch. It may seem that they are playing their part, but in fact they are helping to prepare the ground for the Moscow actor."

Although Zelenskyy did not specifically name Poland, Warsaw responded by summoning Kyiv's ambassador to the Foreign Ministry.

Poland is in the midst of an election campaign. Elections will be held next month, and the right-wing Law and Justice government is fighting for re-election. "While Warsaw initially backed the campaign to help Kyiv, that all-out support has waned as the consequences of supporting Ukraine for its own farmers have become more apparent," Politico notes. 

Read LB.ua news on social networks Facebook, Twitter and Telegram