Eurasia Press & News
The resignation of Henryk Kowalczyk was seen as a political cost PiS had to pay to appease farmers angry at the flood of Ukrainian grain into the country and to enable the first state visit of Ukraine’s president to pass off smoothly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid his first state visit to Poland since Russia’s invasion on Wednesday, amid high security and overshadowed by a political row over grain imports from Ukraine, which saw the resignation of the agriculture minister.
Polish farmers, who had threatened they might organise a “surprise” during the visit, have been protesting against Ukrainian grain, originally meant for markets further west or even other continents, remaining in Poland and hurting the prices of similar Polish produce. The farmers have been complaining about the situation for months, but in recent weeks their protests intensified, including actions that brought hundreds of tractors onto the streets.
According to Tomasz Obszanski, leader of the “Solidarity” Individual Farmers Association, as much as 3 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain has been dumped onto the Polish market since last year. The Ukrainian grain is only meant to pass through Poland on its way to other destinations, as part of solidarity routes that the EU helped put in place when Russia blocked Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea.
But Polish farmers have pointed out that much of the grain ends up flooding the Polish market instead. They also claim that even if the Ukrainian grain is destined for industrial purposes, it gets mixed with Polish grain and turned into animal feed and flour, without any quality checks.
Rural areas have traditionally been a key source of support for the Law and Justice party (PiS), and the farmers’ protests over the last year is a major worry for the ruling party ahead the autumn general election.
Farmers had been complaining particularly about the performance of the agriculture minister, Henryk Kowalczyk, whom they claimed had done little to address to crisis. Therefore, when Kowalczyk announced his resignation on the morning of Zelensky’s trip, it led some observers to conclude that it was a sweetener for the strong farmers’ unions to avoid any scandal during the Ukrainian president’s visit.
With that fear allayed, Zelensky’s one-day visit to Warsaw, to thank Poland for its “historic” help, went off smoothly.
“You have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us, and we are grateful for it,” Zelensky said in Warsaw, addressing the entire Polish nation, not just its political leaders. “I believe that these are historic relations, a historic result, and historic strength between our countries.”
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies since the war invasion in February 2022, strongly advocating for military aid for Kyiv and receiving millions of refugees, a million of whom remain in the country.
Zelensky has so far only visited major capitals like Washington and Brussels and, while he did come to Poland twice since the war started, those were not official state visits, but secret encounters with Polish leaders taking place in Rzeszow, next to the Ukrainian border.
This time around, Zelensky took a whole day to meet with the Polish president and prime minister, and address the Polish people and Ukrainians residing in Poland.
Zelensky arrived at the Presidential Palace at 11:00 in the morning, together with his wife Olena Zelenska. The Ukrainian president met his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, and received from him the White Eagle Order, Poland’s highest honour. Duda said the order was conferred on Zelensky for “services rendered in the direction of deepening Polish-Ukrainian relations, for security and defending human rights.”
“I have the hope that, between Poland and Ukraine, there will be no political, geographical or historical borders,” Zelensky said during his common remarks with President Duda, whom he called a friend.
“Ukrainians will never forget the help you have given us,” Zelensky said, addressing directly the Polish people. He also invited Polish businesses to invest in Ukraine.
Duda announced that Poland would supply Ukraine with a total of 14 MiG-29 fighter jets, something that Kyiv had been asking for. But Polish officials said no decisions have been made yet on F-16 jets, which would increase Ukraine’s attack capacity.
Later, Zelensky had a working meeting with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, discussing, among other things, military contracts that Ukraine would sign with Polish producers as well as the ongoing crisis concerning Ukrainian cereal flooding the Polish market.
Zelensky even took time in the afternoon to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and pay respects to the late Polish president Lech Kaczynski, twin brother of PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in Russia in 2010. Zelensky also greeted Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, a prominent opposition politician, at the event.
