Zelensky seeks end to farmer blockade at the Polish border
UKRAINE’S president has invited Polish leaders to meet him at their shared border to resolve a blockade by Polish farmers protesting against Ukrainian food imports.
Volodymyr Zelensky says the blockade is hampering the shipment of weapons to Ukrainian soldiers.
Meanwhile, Polish authorities voiced concern after slogans appeared at the protests praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war against Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky said on social media he hoped the proposed border meeting for him, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and a European Union representative could happen before the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Saturday.
‘This national security,’ Mr Zelensky said. ‘I am ready to be at the border with our government.’ There was no immediate reaction from the Polish government. Poland, a member of Nato and the European Union, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia launched its fullscale invasion on February 24 2022, accepting unlimited numbers of refugees and providing Ukraine with weaponary. Poles, with past oppression by Moscow rooted deeply in generational memory, are largely supportive of Ukraine. But tensions have been growing as Polish farmers blame imports of Ukrainian grain and other food for pushing down prices and harming their livelihoods.
Poles are among farmers across Europe who are protesting against competition from Ukraine as well as EU environmental policies, which they say will increase their production costs.
Earlier on Wednesday, Poland’s Foreign Ministry said it believed that extreme groups were trying to take over the protest movement ‘perhaps under the influence of Russian agents’. It noted ‘with the greatest concern the appearance of antiUkrainian slogans and slogans praising Vladimir Putin and the war he is waging’.
On Tuesday, a tractor at a protest in the southern Polish region of Silesia carried a Soviet flag and a banner that said: ‘Putin, put things in order with Ukraine, Brussels, and our rulers.’ Interior minister Marcin Kierwinski called the banner ‘scandalous’.