2023-08-02 13:51 update: 2023-08-03, 13:33
Bartosz Cichocki. Photo PAP/Vladyslav Musiienko
Poland is ready to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion, but expects understanding from the Ukrainian side for its needs and perspectives, a deputy foreign minister has said.
Warsaw and Kyiv summoned each other's ambassadors to their foreign ministries on Tuesday in a diplomatic spat between the two countries which had so far been staunch allies in Ukraine's war with Russia.
Poland's ambassador to Ukraine, Bartosz Cichocki, was the first to be called in to the local foreign ministry over comments a Polish presidential aide had made insinuating that Kyiv showed insufficient gratitude for the support it had received from Poland since the start of the war. Later, the Polish foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador, Vasyl Zvarych, "in connection with statements of representatives of the Ukrainian authorities."
However, the Ukrainian charge d'affaires attended the meeting on behalf of Zvarych on Wednesday as the ambassador was in Kyiv at that time.
Pawel Jablonski, a Polish deputy foreign minister, said the Wednesday discussion had focused on statements by some Ukrainian officials that Poland regarded as unacceptable.
Jablonski said the restrictions on imports of Ukrainian grain and the "still unsettled crime of genocide and the exhumation of the victims of the crime committed 80 years ago in Volhynia" were discussed during the meeting.
The Polish government recently announced it was planning to prolong the current ban on the imports of Ukrainian agricultural product to protect Polish farmers, which drew criticism from Ukrainian government officials. Additionally, Poland and Ukraine have not yet resolved their painful historical issues, including the Volhynia massacre in which around 100,000 Poles were slaughtered in 1943-44 by the ultra-nationalist Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions of pre-war eastern Poland.
"We perceive the Russian aggression in Ukraine as a threat to Polish interests as well," Jablonski said. "At the same time, we expect understanding from the Ukrainian side for our needs and perspectives."
Jablonski said that Poland's position on the matters had been forwarded to the representative of the Ukrainian embassy in Poland, who had accepted it and "assured us of their readiness to work on strengthening our relations." (PAP)
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