Polish farmers threaten to ‘ruin’ Zelenskiy visit amid grain dispute
Polish farmers are threatening to derail a visit to Warsaw by Volodymyr Zelenskiy over claims that Ukrainian grain is flooding their market, in a move that would provide Russia with valuable evidence of a crack in western solidarity.
Ukraine’s president is scheduled to visit Poland’s capital on Wednesday to express his gratitude for the country’s solidarity over the war with Russia, but Polish grain producers are warning they could take to the streets to “ruin” the occasion.
“Warsaw should think the thing over,” said Marcin Sobczuk, the head of the Zamość Farmers’ Association, in an interview with the Polish news website Interia. He said the association was ready to “spoil” the visit, adding: “There are a lot of ideas, but it is too early to talk about it.”
As part of an EU initiative, all tariffs and quotas have been lifted on Ukrainian grain exports into the bloc’s 27 member states in order to facilitate the product’s transit around the world, including to Africa, where a Russian blockade on Ukrainian exports has been particularly painful.
The grain has, however, failed to move out of some eastern EU countries, including Poland, Hungary and Romania, forcing down prices in those countries and fuelling resentment in farming communities.
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, had said he would ask the European Commission and member states to reimpose barriers to Ukrainian grain exports but Polish farmers claim nothing has been done.
“We thought that the minister took us seriously, but it turned out to be otherwise,” Sobczuk said.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s biggest cheerleaders since Vladimir Putin sent his military into the country in February 2022, and has urged the EU to go further and faster in its economic
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