Ukraine’s prime minister went to the border with Poland on Friday hoping to end weeks of protests by Polish farmers, but said no one from the neighboring government had turned up for talks.
Polish authorities have said they never agreed to a border meeting and that there is no end in sight to protests that Ukraine says are threatening its exports and halting deliveries of critical weapons for its war against Russia.
“Unfortunately, Polish government officials did not come,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Smygal, who led a delegation to the border.
“But we have made a public appeal to them, we have given our proposals and we will continue this work.”
Smigal said Ukraine was in contact with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and reiterated that the crisis must be resolved “as soon as possible.”
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Poland is a strong ally of Ukraine in its war against Russia, but tensions on the farm have strained relations in recent weeks.
Farmers began blocking three border crossings this month in anger over cheap prices charged for Ukrainian grain and other products.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed the meeting at the border and issued a statement saying that Ukrainian grain did not go to the Polish market “at the request of the Polish side”.
He added: “We are willing and will do everything we can to resolve this issue.”
However, Tusk’s chief of staff, Jan Grabiec, told AFP that Warsaw had not sent a delegation because a meeting “doesn’t make sense at the moment”.
He said the two sides were “far away” from an agreement to end the showdown.
“Unfortunately, there is still no Ukrainian proposal that allows us to hope for an end to the deadlock in trade relations.”
The government in Warsaw is trying not to antagonize Polish farmers, and Tusk told reporters on Thursday that negotiations were continuing.
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He said the two governments would meet in Warsaw on March 28 and it was “best to continue these talks at a technical, organizational level”.
On Friday, Polish police said grain from Ukraine had spilled onto a Polish railway near the border — the second such incident this week.
Source: AFP