Poland's foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned the Ukrainian ambassador over comments made by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the United Nations General Assembly, it said. Zelenskiy said in an address that Kyiv was "working hard to preserve the land routes for grain exports" and that the "political theatre" around grain imports was only helping Moscow, which invaded Ukraine last year.
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, citing a need to protect domestic markets, announced their own curbs on Ukrainian grain imports on Friday after the European Commission decided not to extend its ban on such imports into five eastern European Union member states. "(Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski) conveyed the Polish side's strong protest against the statements made by President V. Zelenskiy at the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, alleging that some EU countries feigned solidarity while indirectly supporting Russia," a foreign ministry statement said.
It said Jablonski also told Ambassador Vasyl Zvarych that "putting pressure on Poland in multilateral forums or sending complaints to international tribunals are not appropriate methods of resolving disputes between our countries". A World Trade Organization spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that Ukraine had taken the first step in a trade dispute by filing a complaint to the global trade body.
He did not name the countries although Kyiv has previously said the complaint targeted Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Also on Tuesday, Ukraine said it would impose retaliatory import curbs on certain goods from Poland and Hungary if they did not lift their unilateral bans.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki replied that Warsaw could ban imports of more Ukrainian food products if Kyiv escalated the dispute.
