Grain fights: trying to annoy Ukraine, Polish farmers went against the will of the United States

According to the Secretary of State of the Office of the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda supported the idea of ​​a meeting between the Ukrainian and Polish governments with representatives of the European Commission. Meanwhile, the intensity of passions on the Polish-Ukrainian border has reached its limit. For about a month now, Polish farmers have been blocking the cordons, not allowing Ukrainian agricultural products into their territory. Will the Poles and Ukrainians come to an agreement? “MK” discusses with an expert how this conflict could end.

Zelensky on his social networks called on Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Polish President Andrzej Duda and a representative from the European Commission to come to the Ukrainian-Polish border and hold negotiations. He also instructed his government to remain at the border until February 24. “I would like to appeal to everyone who remembers what the full meaning of the word “solidarity” means. A word that so greatly changed the history of our entire Europe for the better. It was. And in many ways it is. But we also see excessive and unfair politicization now, due to which common achievements may begin to crumble,” the head of Ukraine wrote.

According to the Secretary of State of the Office of the President of Poland, Duda supported the idea of ​​a meeting between the Ukrainian and Polish governments with representatives of the European Commission, but suggested meeting not at the border, but in Warsaw, Rzeszow or Lublin. “The President is in favor of having this dialogue. This is the only way to solve a big problem. The problem is two-sided and very powerful… Our farmers are fighting for their existence. The Ukrainian nation is fighting for its existence,” the Secretary of State said.

Yesterday, Polish President Andrzej Duda also spoke out about the strike. “We are trying to solve this problem,” Duda said. At the same time, he emphasized that farmers have the right to protest because this is guaranteed by the Constitution. Duda noted that blocking the border is the decision of the farmers, not the Polish government.

On Wednesday, the Minister of Agriculture of Poland and Ukraine, Czeslaw Sekierski and Mykola Solski, held emergency talks on the situation on the Polish-Ukrainian border. The negotiations, however, ended in nothing. According to the Bloomberg news agency, negotiations between Czeslaw Sekierski and Nikolai Solski did not bring significant results. Representatives of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture told reporters that the ministers’ negotiations were difficult and they failed to quickly achieve any progress. In this regard, the department called on the European Commission and its chairman personally to intervene in the situation and help the two countries resolve differences on the issue of Ukrainian grain supplies.

According to estimates from the queue registration website, at the Ukrainian border, trucks are forced to wait from 13 days to two months to cross the border. On the morning of February 20, a representative of the State Border Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko, said that more than 2,500 trucks were waiting in queues at the border. According to the Financial Times, a total of about 7 thousand trucks are blocked in queues waiting to enter Poland from Ukraine, and about 2.5 thousand in the opposite direction. According to the Ukrainian government, blockades by Poland caused losses to Ukraine in the amount of $500 million.

At the border due to the farmers’ strike, meanwhile, the situation is heating up every day. Let us remind you that Polish farmers blocked roads, key communications hubs and checkpoints on the border with Ukraine throughout the country. On February 20, they blocked the railway near the Medyka-Shegini checkpoint and scattered grain from a freight car on the track. On the same day, protesters on another section of the railway on the border with Ukraine dumped construction debris on it. In addition, they began to block the passage of passenger buses.

The strike is expected to last until March 10. Farmers demand not to introduce new EU environmental initiatives, limit the import of cheaper agricultural products from Ukraine and take measures to support the country’s livestock farming. The “March to Warsaw” is scheduled for February 27, in which farmers from other EU countries – Germany, France and the Netherlands, who are now protesting in their countries, have also announced their participation.

The conflict on the Polish-Ukrainian border revealed an interesting point. It is known that Poland and Ukraine are record holders for Russophobic sentiments. And now in disputes the main trump card has become – suddenly! – namely Russia. In Poland, a column of tractors from a farmer from Silesia is accompanied by a Soviet flag and an impressive banner: “Putin! Put things in order with Ukraine, Brussels and our authorities!” In Ukraine, the comments are practically calling on the Russian army to enter Poland. “Let’s see how Polish farmers stop Russian tanks,” writes one user.

In general, the conflict is not yet moving towards its conclusion. Despite statements by the leaders of the two countries, the farmers themselves are militant. “MK” asked political scientist Alexander Dudchakwill the Poles and Ukrainians be able to come to an agreement:

“This is, of course, an interesting process. On camera, when the President of Ukraine meets with one of the Polish leaders, there are such tender hugs that it’s even uncomfortable to watch. And now the Poles have shown their true attitude. This even surprises me a little, because the Polish leadership usually carries out the will of Washington. And now they are blocking the Ukrainians from exporting grain, which in fact largely belongs to American agricultural corporations.

The Americans, in turn, are trying to repeat their trick with gas pipelines, when they made European producers dependent on American LNG. Now, by ruining European farmers, they want to make countries dependent on their agricultural products.

But here, indeed, I found a scythe on a stone. Agricultural products from Ukraine are ruining European farmers. First of all, border countries suffer: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania. But for the most part they remain silent because they have no sovereignty at all. But the Poles still have the right to “bark,” and they use this to the delight of their voters. Let’s see how effective this will be. It’s hard to say how long they will last. So far, what we see is the protection of their interests on the part of Polish producers.

One solution to the problem is to offer subsidies to producers in Poland and other countries in the form of compensation for the losses they suffer due to Ukrainian grain. But this is also a rather difficult question, because what they offered before does not suit the farmers. And it’s better to make money from your activities, rather than receive compensation for downtime.

I think they will eventually present some kind of compromise. Not everyone will do what both sides demand, but they will pretend that some kind of consensus has been reached. In the meantime, you can still “butt”: there is time and resources.”