Ukraine calls on Poland to put aside emotions in grain issue

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has called on Poland to put emotions aside and switch to a constructive dialogue on grain exports.

The ministry's spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said this in a Facebook post, Ukrinform reports.

Nikolenko said the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had been informed in detail about a meeting between Ukraine's ambassador in Warsaw and Poland's deputy foreign minister.

He said that during the meeting, the Ukrainian ambassador had once again explained the Ukrainian position on the unacceptability of Poland's unilateral ban on the import of Ukrainian grain. He also called incorrect the comparison of Ukraine made by Polish President Andrzej Duda during his visit to New York.

"We call on our Polish friends to put the emotions aside. The Ukrainian side offered Poland a constructive way to solve the grain problem. We expect our proposals to become the basis for moving the dialogue into a constructive direction," Nikolenko said.

The Polish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Ukraine's Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Zvarych over a statement made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the UN General Assembly, which was seen as anti-Polish.

At a meeting with Polish journalists in New York, Duda defended Warsaw's decision to introduce unilateral restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products and compared Ukraine with "a drowning person clinging to anything available."