Poland is probably the canary in the European coal mine. A lot of European countries are tired of the Ukraine blank check. From Richard Hubert Barton at strategic-culture.su:
The honeymoon is over and is never to come back, Richard Barton writes.
It all started with the grain dispute. After Ukraine was blocked from exporting its agricultural grains, primarily wheat, via the Black Sea, the only available route left was overland through Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. It turned out that such a route was not available anymore.
The Polish authorities faced with their farmers’ massive protests were quick to note that Ukrainian wheat is of substandard quality and didn’t meet the EU’s requirements. It was also being sold at one-third of the European price and would have meant a financial disaster for the European farmers.
In view of Poland’s forthcoming general elections on 15 October, the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) in Warsaw was quick to realize that the social and economic problems caused by cheaper Ukrainian grain imports could even put them out of power. After all, rural votes are the traditional electoral stronghold of the PiS party.
However, there were other international political developments that cast a long shadow on the relations between Poland and Ukraine. Last week at the UN General Assembly, President Zelensky accused Poland of the grave sin of “helping Russia”. The reaction of the Polish political leadership was furious. President of Poland Andrzej Duda refused to meet Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
