Security policy expert: Ukraine innately assumes the West has a moral duty to provide it support

Relations between Poland and Ukraine are getting strained, although Warsaw has so far been one of Kyiv's key supporters since the outbreak of the war last year, sending modern weapons to Ukrainian troops and hosting the largest number of Ukrainian civilians fleeing the fighting. However, the extension of the import ban on Ukrainian grain set off a chain reaction that led to increasingly tense relations between the two countries. Magyar Nemzet asked two security policy experts to share their views on how relations between Warsaw and Kyiv may develop.

POLAND-UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-DIPLOMACY Fotó: WOJTEK RADWANSKI

"The Russia-Ukraine war has been raging since February 24  last year. From the very beginning, Ukraine has assumed that the world, especially the West, has a duty to support Ukraine's policy, at any cost and under any conditions," Gyorgy Nogradi pointed out. Magyar Nemzet asked the security expert about the tensions between Poland and Ukraine, which have flared after Warsaw extended the import ban on Ukrainian grain, prompting Kyiv to sue Poland - along with Hungary and Slovakia - at the World Trade Organisation.

Following the move, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced on Thursday that Poland will halt arms deliveries to Ukraine. Since then, government spokesman Piotr Muller has slightly modified the PM's statement, saying that the arms supply agreements concluded so far will not remain unfulfilled. "Poland is fulfilling what has been signed to this day, it does not want to break a contract, but will not sign a new agreement, nor will it provide Ukraine with any further military aid," the expert added.

Warsaw's decision to stop arms supplies may be justified, given that Poland needs equipment to guarantee the country's security, Gyorgy Nogradi highlighted. 

The ban on grain imports has been extended not only by Poland, but also by Hungary and Slovakia. In the security expert's view, the decision angered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to such an extent that he told the UN General Assembly that anyone who does anything against Ukrainians is serving Russian interests. "This is simply nonsense," Gyorgy Nogradi remarked.

What is also interesting about the case is that Poland has accepted the largest number of Ukrainian refugees - more than one million people - and have established several social service facilities for them, and are providing free care and free travel opportunities. Attila Demko, head of the Geopolitical Center at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), believes that Poland also benefits from the Ukrainian refugees, who have now become part of the labor force in the Central European country.

In the long term, it is also in Poland's interest that all or at least the majority of them remain in Poland,

he added.

On the other hand, Mr Demko pointed out that the feud between Warsaw and Kyiv is not entirely new, it started in the summer, at the commemoration of the victims of the Volhynia massacre, when Poles felt they were short-changed by Ukraine, especially in light of the help they had been providing the country thus far.

Poland has given even more than everything to Ukraine and are dumbfounded by the countermove,

he noted.

The security policy expert pointed out that the past few days' events also have a domestic political dimension in Poland. "A lot is riding on the outcome of the Polish elections, and a lot also depends on whether the Ukrainian rhetoric will soften towards Poland in the upcoming period," he explained. He emphasized that whoever wins the parliamentary elections scheduled for mid-October may revise or continue on with the level of assistance seen so far. According to Attila Demko, the Poles are already getting tired of the war, and additionally, the last year and a half have also meant that the Polish people were not being focused on in certain areas, such as education.

The issue of Ukrainian wheat flooding Poland may even cost the Polish ruling party the elections,

the expert said.

Cover photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (Photo: AFP/Wojtek Radwanski)