“Russian and Belarusian products are entering the Polish market, but Polish farmers are not protesting against it” – Andriy Deshchytsia

Russia may be interested in the protests of Polish farmers, said Andriy Deshchytsia, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Poland (2014-2022), on the Radio Liberty program “Freedom Live”.

– Last year, many people said that the Polish protests were just a part of the election campaign in Poland, but the protests have not subsided. Who and how should settle it now?

– Many also said that there might be a Russian trace in these protests.

And this is not excluded. It seems that this tension that is being created on the Ukrainian-Polish border between Ukraine and Poland is beneficial to Russia, and it may be further activated from time to time. I think that we need to solve these problems as soon as possible and show Polish farmers that these problems can be solved by the Polish government in cooperation with the Ukrainian government (because there is a Ukrainian interest here) and in cooperation with Brussels (because there is a common European agricultural policy). First of all, these protests are based on two main demands: to stop the new EU agricultural policy and to stop the export of Ukrainian grain. Therefore, the new government needs to act as quickly as possible.

– Some of our Polish journalist colleagues have pointed out that Russian grain also enters Europe through Latvia and Greece, but for some reason there is not as much protest against it as against Ukrainian grain.

– You are absolutely right here, because subconsciously, one can assume that Russia, being interested in quarreling between Ukraine and Poland and breaking the unity of the European Union, focuses on Ukrainian agricultural products through its various channels, consciously and unconsciously. At the same time, Russian and Belarusian agricultural products are entering the Polish market. And this is during the war, when the European Union has imposed sanctions against Russia. However, Polish farmers are not protesting against this.

So I think that we need to provide more information about what is actually happening on the agricultural market in Poland, who is to blame for it. Ukraine as a state is not involved in what is happening with the situation with Polish farming, because Polish farming is against the new agricultural policy of the European Union, the “green policy” of the European Union. Polish farmers do not quite understand that prices for agricultural products in Poland are falling because not only Ukrainian farm products, not only Ukrainian grain are coming there.

Polish farmers also do not quite understand where this grain is going, because what we have seen now, I would say, the criminal actions of protesters against Ukrainian trucks, when they dumped Ukrainian grain – perhaps not even Ukrainian grain, because it was already contracted and was going to other buyers in Lithuania – it was destroyed in Poland, so the question arises: “Shouldn’t we be allowed to enter Poland at all in this case?” I think that these are quite serious signals, and I think that under these economic demands there is also a rather serious political or geopolitical basis, which affects the defense capabilities of both Poland and Ukraine.

– To what extent will Poland be interested in an objective investigation of this incident now? Do you see any signs that Poland is ready to punish its own citizens for what they did?

– If these citizens have deliberately violated the law, then of course they should be brought to justice. At least the Polish government is now declaring that they want to find out what the problem is, and the more truth that is available to both Polish farmers and Polish society, the better.

Let me return to the issue of Ukrainian grain coming to Poland. But it was bought by Polish companies. Therefore, we need to understand who was making money by buying cheaper Ukrainian grain and then reselling it on the Polish market or further.

Tags: Ukraine, Russia, grain, Poland, protests, restrictions