President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is grateful to Poland, its president and people for supporting Ukrainians since the first days of the war. But from April to September, relations were very difficult. Ukraine lost hundreds of millions of dollars and part of its harvest due to Poland's blockade of Ukrainian exports, he said at a press conference.
Ukraine is historically grateful, but it has to be frank: it is defending Poland with its life. The president believes that the Poles helped as much as they could, and Ukrainians stood behind the Poles and are still standing as much as they can, he said.
Relations were strong, but then the blockade of Ukrainian borders began when Poland banned the export of Ukrainian agricultural products.
"Understand: this is not business in times of war. It was a blockade of our borders. It was survival, we didn't have a corridor then. A free, independent Black Sea corridor through which our grain could be exported," he said.
The president said that Ukraine was ready for a compromise, but what was it?
"A compromise that not all of us will survive? Not to export this grain? What was the compromise? We said okay, we will not sell grain to Poland. Okay, let us export it. You know how Poles are treated. With great amicability and love. Even when everyone saw that we had a conflict at the level of leaders, Ukrainians started to defend you, not me," he told a Polish journalist.
"I am not some kind of wimp. I defend the interests of the state in times of war. I said: let us export. We were not allowed to export," he said, calling it wrong.
Zelenskyy is sure that it was a political signal, a political election of the government officials who lost.
The Romanian president helped the farmers survive, Zelenskyy said.
Regarding the new government, the president said that the situation has already levelled out, and he has reached an agreement with President Andrzej Duda. Ukraine is ready for Poland to lose nothing. The president added that Poland has lost financially from its own blockade.