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Poland’s Tusk flounders over Ukraine border fight as Polish farmers remain steadfast

March 6, 2024 GOVERNMENT 0

ER Editor:  This Politico article concerning recent events between Poland and Ukraine, and regarding Polish farmers blocking the Ukraine border, caught our eye for willing to be critical of globalist Tusk and to have a slightly more even-handed tone to it, while still blaming Russia of course. A reminder of geography in relation to Poland, Belarus and Lithuania —

Polish farmers are still protesting, and protesting against Ukraine. The article below, typical of Politico, attempts to make Russian grain imports look shady, yet experts believe those imports are too small to make any difference within Poland. (We didn’t know that Russia was the world’s largest grain exporter, nor that Russian food imports into the EU were exempt from sanctions. Which is just as well something is exempt that is otherwise cheap and necessary given that energy imports have been impacted.)

Modification: We just bumped into this from RT – Russia is the largest wheat exporter and the fourth in terms of general agricultural exports —

Russia now world’s fourth largest agricultural exporter – Putin

Russia’s actually not the enemy here, Polish farmers still have their eyes on Ukraine imports – for irrational reasons according to the article, and on EU agricultural policy, and Tusk is floundering. Also, Ukraine is desperate to sell its grain to whomever, wherever. These are the takeaways we get despite trying to blame Russia as usual.

We had heard that grain from Ukraine is regarded as toxic in some way – Ukrainian food stuffs have this reputation in France now, yet this point has disappeared from the narrative.

Some illuminating tweets —

This tweet reminds us that the highly profitable eastern side of Ukraine, with industry and resources, has been lost to Russia. Grain exports become much more important, therefore —

Here’s the anti-Russian Lithuanian PM being welcomed by her Romanian counterpart, pledging support for getting grain to international markets —

And Ukrainian grain is now being shipped to Nigeria!!

TODAY, with the EU in the crosshairs —

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Putin the only winner as Poland’s Tusk flounders over Ukraine border fight

Poland blockades its ally Ukraine while buying farm goods from its enemy Russia.

BARTOSZ BRZEZIŃSKI AND VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA for POLITICO.EU

In late February, Mykhailo Tkach traveled to Poland’s border with Belarus to film trucks loaded with Russian grain crossing freely into the European Union.

The Ukrainian journalist, who was eventually detained by police, wondered on camera why, to the south, Polish farmers were blocking Ukrainian grain and other agricultural imports while Russian goods worth millions of euros were flowing in unimpeded.

Polish Farmers And Truckers Expand Blockade Near Ukrainian Border
The border protests pose an uncomfortable dilemma for Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk | Omar Marques/Getty Images

The border protests have driven a wedge between Poland and Ukraine and pose an uncomfortable dilemma for Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has called himself Kyiv’s biggest ally in its war against Russian aggression.

To appease the protesting farmers, Tusk said last week that he would consider national legislation to ban Russian and Belarusian imports because they, like Ukrainian goods, destabilize the Polish and EU markets.

On Monday, he backtracked, arguing that he’d pursue an EU-wide ban instead.

The Polish PM’s twisting and turning has experts and the international community wondering if he really knows how to quell the farmers’ unrest — or is just adding fuel to the fire.

For one thing, there is no evidence to support Tusk’s claims that Russian — or even Ukrainian — imports are to blame for the Polish farmers’ woes. As recently as January another EU country, Latvia, pushed for a bloc-wide ban on farm imports from Russia and failed, after other capitals argued that it would be too costly. (Russian food, unlike energy and some other exports, is not subject to Western sanctions. EU countries like Spain and Italy are still big buyers).

Tusk’s announcement is “just to show farmers that something is being done,” said Jakub Olipra, senior economist at Credit Agricole Bank Polska, adding that it wouldn’t make any practical difference.

And as Tusk flounders, the farmers’ anger has deepened the rift between Warsaw and Kyiv.

The only winner of the trade war between the two allies is Russian President Vladimir Putin as he projects Russia’s power as the world’s leading grain exporter and uses it to isolate Ukraine.

Hybrid warfare

Despite an existing ban on importing Ukrainian grain, Polish farmers have been blocking various border crossings since late last year, convinced that goods from their eastern neighbor are still entering the country. Their demands: an end to the European Green Deal and a halt to agricultural imports from Ukraine.

Tusk has let them get on with the blockade, trying to keep them onside as he juggles delicate talks within his ruling coalition and negotiations with the EU over the release of billions in frozen stimulus funds, while preparing for regional elections this spring at which the rural vote will be crucial.

The farmers last week extended their protest to the border with Lithuania, arguing that Ukrainian grain is going to the Baltic country, where it’s rebranded and shipped onward to Poland, circumventing the national ban.

…

Shred of evidence

Tusk’s claim that Russian grain is undercutting Polish farmers stems in part from Moscow’s burgeoning agricultural presence on the international stage.

Russian grain producers recently boasted that they doubled their exports to the EU last year and are on course to reap another record harvest.

And Russia is using its prodigious exports to drive down international grain prices, which in turn has pushed prices in the EU to their lowest levels since 2020. That has made it less profitable for Polish farmers to sell their own grain. Instead of blaming Moscow, however, they have turned their anger on Kyiv.

In any case, an embargo on Russian goods — just like the existing Ukrainian one, which was imposed by the previous Polish government but maintained when Tusk took over in December — would do nothing to ease their situation because the amounts entering Poland are too small to cause market problems, according to Olipra, from Credit Agricole.

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CONTINUE READING HERE

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