Polish President Andrzej Duda addresses world leaders during the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on September 19, 2023 in New York City. (AFP)
Poland’s president says his country will fulfill existing arms supply agreements with Kiev but it may only send more of its older weapons to the country.
President Andrzej Duda made the remarks to walk back his prime minister’s comments about not providing Kiev with more weapons.
Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Wednesday that the country is no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons.
Duda said on Thursday that Morawiecki’s remarks were interpreted in the worst possible way.
In my opinion, the prime minister meant that we won’t be transferring to Ukraine the new weaponry that we’re currently buying as we modernize the Polish army.
As we receive the new weaponry from the US and South Korea, we will be releasing the weaponry currently used by the Polish army. Perhaps we will transfer it to Ukraine, the president added.
Poland, one of Kiev’s closest allies, is also a key transit country for weaponry that the United States and other Western supporters are sending to Ukraine. Poland has already sent Ukraine 320 Soviet-era tanks and 14 MiG-29 fighter jets.
It has also signed multiple arms deals, including with the United States and South Korea, from whom it ordered K2 Black Panther tanks and K9 howitzers.
Warsaw’s latest announcement about sending its outdated weapons to Ukraine comes amid a bitter spat with Kiev over a temporary ban on Ukraine’s grain imports to a number of European countries.
Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has closed off Black Sea shipping lanes used before the war, resulting in the European Union (EU) becoming a major transit route and export destination for Ukrainian grain.
The EU agreed to restrict exports to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in May, seeking to protect farmers there who blamed the shipments for a slump in prices on local markets.
The European Commission announced last week that it would let existing restrictions expire. But Poland, Slovakia and Hungary said they will extend the ban.
In response, Kiev said it would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the ban.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s President, told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that it is alarming to see how some in Europe, some of our friends in Europe, play out solidarity in a political theater - making a thriller from the grain.
Zelensky said that the nations involved may seem to play their own role but in fact, they are helping set the stage to a Moscow actor.
His comments sparked immediate condemnation from Poland, with the foreign ministry summoning the Ukrainian ambassador to convey its strong protest.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/27168
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