The Polish Minister of Agriculture made it clear that Poland would not accept grain shipments from Ukraine, even if the EU agrees to purchase more grain from Poland. Izvestia interviewed political scientist Alexei Martynov on Aug. 4 on the matter. Martynov remarked: “Poland does not need agricultural products from Ukraine. Poland provides for itself, and Ukrainian agricultural products, even if they are of lower quality, still kill the agricultural market in Poland. Farmers there suffer greatly from this, (and) other specialists involved in agriculture, they are not interested in this, they do not need anything from Ukraine. This will always be the subject of mutual irritation.”
Analyst Ivan Mezyukho states in another interview: “At the very beginning of hostilities, Warsaw already took unprecedented measures to support the Ukrainian economy, which resulted in protests inside the Republic of Poland. The current Polish government cannot ignore these protest moods, because it could cost them their positions. And so today Poland is more clearly declaring that they have their obligations to domestic business.”
