Ukraine displaces Russian, not Polish agricultural products from EU market - Ukrainian Minister
Photo: Oleksandr Kubrakov (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Ukraine wants to oust Russian agricultural products from the EU market. Ukrainian producers do not pose any threat to Polish farmers, according to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction and Minister for Community, Territorial, and Infrastructure Development.
The official believes that Polish society has fallen victim to propaganda fueled by some Polish politicians, who tell their citizens lies about Ukrainian agricultural products and carriers.
"They (individual politicians - ed.) are playing on this topic. And, unfortunately, they have received support from a part of Polish society. This is how propaganda works. People do not understand or do not know the details, and they believe that we have simply destroyed their farmers, that our agricultural products have flooded all their markets, and now there is no place for them. This is not true," Kubrakov says.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Poles import agricultural products from Russia without queues through Belarus, as evidenced by official statistics. At the same time, the transit of Ukrainian exports through Poland has decreased threefold compared to 2022.
In addition, Kubrakov emphasizes that the governments of Ukraine and Poland are not negotiating to close the border, as this is "suicide." "We are talking about opening new additional checkpoints and unblocking the existing ones," the official explains.
Russian grain
At the end of February, the government of Latvia banned the import of grain from the territory of Russia and demanded the same step from the European Union.
Later, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the need to fight the import of Russian grain to the European market.
On March 8, the Polish Seimas supported the resolution on sanctions against agricultural products from the territory of Russia and Belarus and asked the European Commission to introduce sanctions on the import of Russian and Belarusian food and agricultural products to the European Union.
