Ukraine says Polish officials a no-show at border to discuss blockade

By Yuliia Dysa and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk

KYIV/WARSAW (Reuters) -A Ukrainian government delegation visited the border with EU member Poland on Friday amid protests and blockades of cargoes from Ukrainian producers by Polish farmers, but the prime minister said they were not met by any officials from Warsaw.

Farmers have stepped up their protests this week by temporarily blocking almost all traffic with Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had asked Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, President Andrzej Duda and EU officials to come to the border to discuss the matter.

“The Ukrainian government is here (on the border) today,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram. “But, unfortunately…a meeting with Polish officials did not take place.”

The Polish prime minister’s office referred to Tusk’s comments on Thursday when he said the two governments would meet in Warsaw on March 28.

Shmyhal said the issue should be resolved “much earlier”. “Otherwise, Ukraine reserves the right to apply mirror measures at checkpoints,” he added.

Farmers across Europe have been demonstrating against constraints placed on them by EU measures to tackle climate change, as well as rising costs and what they say is unfair competition, particularly from Ukraine after the EU in 2022 waived duties on Ukrainian food imports to help it following the Russian invasion.

ACTION PLAN

Shmyhal said Kyiv has developed a five-step plan “of mutual understanding” aimed at finding a compromise.

“The blockade hits the entire Polish-Ukrainian trade and the economy of our countries. Not only Ukraine is losing from it, but Polish entrepreneurs who export goods worth $12 billion annually to our market are losing from it.”

The plan envisages Ukraine’s agreement to European Commission proposals to restrict exports of poultry, eggs and sugar, as well as appeals to the EU to ban Russian agrarian exports.

Kyiv is also ready to apply a verification mechanism to grain, corn, sunflower and rapeseed exports. A round-the-clock trilateral body should be established to find a fast resolution, Shmyhal said.

Polish farmers have broad public support for their protests, leaving Tusk facing a difficult balancing act between addressing their concerns and maintaining the government’s support for Ukraine as the war with Russia enters its third year.

“I know that the protesting farmers are not anti-Ukrainian, there may be one or two incidents but we will deal with that,” Tusk said on Friday.

Polish police said they were investigating the latest of several incidents in which a load of rapeseed was spilled from three train trucks carrying cargo from Ukraine.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said those responsible for the incident must be held accountable, adding that the cargo had been heading to Germany.

In a bid to bring the reality of war home to the Polish protesters, the Ukrainian Agrarian Council said its members had brought farm machinery destroyed by Russia to the border.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Olena Harmash in Kyiv, Yuliia Dysa in Gdansk, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Anna Koper and Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Nick Macfie, Kirsten Donovan)