A new crisis erupted on Monday between kyiv and Warsaw after an incident at the common border where disgruntled Polish farmers blocking crossing points dumped Ukrainian grain on the road destined for the European Union.
The Polish prosecutor's office announced on Monday that it had “opened an investigation”.
“We are in the process of gathering documents, interviewing witnesses and preserving images which will probably constitute essential evidence,” Lublin prosecutor's spokesperson Agnieszka Kepka told AFP.
Strong reactions in Ukraine
This action sparked strong reactions in Ukraine, a country with a strong agricultural tradition that has been facing the Russian invasion for two years and where millions of people died in 1932-1933, during the Great Famine (Holodomor) organized by the Stalinist regime.
“The Ukrainian ambassador to Poland criticized Polish farmers who blocked three Ukrainian trucks at the border and dumped some of the grain they were transporting on the road.
Such things “should not be tolerated in a civilized European country,” according to a post published on the X network by an independent Polish media outlet.
Ukraine's ambassador to Poland has criticized the Polish farmers who blocked three Ukrainian trucks at the border and poured some of the grain they were carrying onto the road.
Such things "should not be tolerated in a civilized European country", he says https://t.co/p6yQp8Aw5H
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 12, 2024
The Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy declared Monday in a press release “strongly denounce” the “deliberate destruction” of grain which “has nothing to do with peaceful protests, whether from a legal or moral point of view ".
“We are closely following the investigation into this incident and hope that the perpetrators will be quickly identified and punished,” he added.
Polish farmers accuse unfair competition
Polish farmers stopped a truck carrying Ukrainian grain as it crossed the border on Sunday and dumped its cargo, in protest at what they consider unfair competition from their Ukrainian colleagues.
In images shared on social media, we can see piles of grain, sometimes covered with an EU flag, in the middle of a road, as part of demonstrations organized across Poland to protest against the competition from Ukraine and heavy European regulations.
Read alsoImport of Ukrainian cereals: the EU wants an end to restrictions, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary resist
Polish police said they were investigating the case.
The evidence collected “will be sent today to the Chelm district prosecutor's office for a criminal law assessment regarding further proceedings in this case,” local police spokeswoman Ewa told AFP. Czyz.
Poland has been among Ukraine's biggest supporters since the Russian invasion, but friction over Warsaw's unilateral ban on grain imports has damaged relations between the allies.
In recent days, authorities in Warsaw have raised the possibility of imposing new import bans on Ukrainian agricultural products to protect their farmers.
Poland had banned imports of Ukrainian grain under the previous nationalist PiS government, but maintained the ban after a new pro-EU coalition came to power in October 2023.
Brussels seeks solutions
The European Commission indicated on Monday that it would “continue” to seek “solutions” that would make it possible to preserve “maximum economic support for Ukraine”, ravaged by two years of war.
“We believe that the work should be done not at the border, not in a pressure situation, but by sitting down at the negotiating table,” said Commission spokesperson Olof Gill.
“Ukrainian farmers work under constant enemy shelling and suffer huge losses.
They pay very dearly for their harvests, sometimes with their lives,” added the Ukrainian ministry.
He “invited” Polish producers “to go to Ukraine to see the working conditions” of Ukrainians.
“The lack of reaction from the Polish authorities to the destruction of deliveries will lead to more xenophobia and political violence,” added Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Economy, Taras Katchka.
If Warsaw does not react quickly, the “gang” that organized the border blockade will “start killing Ukrainians because they are Ukrainians,” he warned.
“Pro-Russian Polish provocateurs”
Some participants in these farmer protests belong to the Polish far-right and previously took part in organizing the border blockade by Polish truckers at the end of 2023. “It is painful to see Ukrainian grain scattered on the road” , MP Iryna Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook.
“Bread is sacred to Ukrainians.
Our genetic memory keeps deep within us the horrors of the Holodomor.”
Andriï Sadovy, the mayor of Lviv, a large city in western Ukraine close to Poland, judged on Telegram “shameful” the actions carried out, according to him, “by Polish (…) pro-Russian provocateurs”.