JAZZ SHAW FROM HOTAIR
Poland’s Prime Minister announced yesterday that his country was ending arms shipments to Ukraine. Instead of sending military support to Kyiv, Poland will be upgrading its own military capabilities with more modern weaponry. But this wasn’t a signal that Poland was suddenly supporting Russia or Putin’s invasion. It’s part of a simmering spat between the EU and several of its eastern block members. And rather than dealing with military matters, the dispute is based on agriculture. This move may represent the first crack in the armor of the unified opposition to Russia, but it also highlights growing tensions between various factions inside of the EU itself. (Politico)
Warsaw has stopped supplying weapons to Kyiv and is focusing on arming itself instead, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Wednesday, amid a dispute over Ukraine’s agricultural exports.
“We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine, because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons,” Morawiecki said in an appearance on Polish television channel Polsat, according to European Pravda. “If you don’t want to be on the defensive, you have to have something to defend yourself with,” he added, insisting, though, that the move wouldn’t endanger Ukraine’s security.
Morawiecki’s terse comments came as tensions escalated between Kyiv and the EU over the past week, after the European Commission moved to allow Ukrainian grain sales across the bloc, ending restrictions on grain imports which five eastern EU countries originally sought to protect their farmers from competition.
This isn’t some new complaint from Poland that just came out of left field. When the original EU deal to support Ukraine was enacted, five eastern nations led by Poland carved out an agreement under which Ukrainian grain exports would be banned in those nations. This was done to protect the market interests of their own farmers. The original ban came with an expiration date, but on September 12, Poland’s Prime Minister sent a letter to Brussels saying that if the ban was lifted, Poland would institute its own individual ban in response. They have now announced such a ban and they were quickly followed by Hungary and Slovakia. Bulgaria and Romania are expected to follow suit.
In response, Ukraine has already filed lawsuits against three of those nations with the World Trade Organization. Poland is still attempting to maintain a cooperative attitude in public, saying, “Our friends in Poland need to understand” that Poland’s agricultural markets can’t be destabilized. But this situation is clearly creating tension among the allies.
