Zelenskyy calls for urgent talks to end Polish border crisis

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he would seek urgent talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as a border blockade by Polish farmers plunged relations between the two allies into crisis.

Days before the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the extent of the Polish farm protests against imports of produce from the country's eastern neighbor has shocked leaders in Kyiv, who have counted on the support of Warsaw and other Western allies to resist President Vladimir Putin's war of aggression.

Addressing Tusk directly in a video statement, Zelenskyy said: "I have directed our government to arrive at the border between our countries in the near future, by February 24 ... I am also ready to come to the border alongside our government.”

In addition to blockading border crossings, Polish farmers have dumped grain bound for Germany, while one tractor carried a placard proclaiming support for Putin and his invasion. "Putin, bring order to Ukraine and Brussels — and to our own rulers," the message proclaimed in red and black capital letters daubed on cardboard.

“We are now witnessing an excessive and unfair politicization that threatens to dump common achievements — like the Ukrainian grain that the whole world saw flagrantly dumped from trucks and railroad cars on Polish roads," said Zelenskyy. "This is the grain that our farmers and peasants grow with great difficulty, despite all the hardships caused by Russia's brutal aggression."

The Polish foreign ministry expressed its "utmost concern" at the anti-Ukrainian slogans that have appeared at the farmers' protests — and blamed Russian collaborators for fueling the tensions.

"Activities of this kind cast shadow over Poland, which was the first country to help the invaded Ukraine, and over Poles, who welcomed Ukrainian refugees. Importantly, they are a disgrace to the protests’ organisers themselves," the ministry said in a statement.

Poland's consul in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where Polish is widely spoken, condemned the actions of the farmers.

“I can no longer remain silent. For the love of my own Motherland. I cannot pretend that I do not see these disgraceful actions of Poland on the Polish-Ukrainian border. I apologize to you dear Ukrainian friends,” the consul, Eliza Dzwonkiewicz, said in a statement.

Farmers across Europe have taken to the streets this year, many blaming growing imports of Ukrainian grain, poultry and sugar for their woes. Meanwhile, national leaders — from Emmanuel Macron in France to Olaf Scholz in Germany and Giorgia Meloni in Italy — have bowed to their wrath and offered up costly concessions.

The Polish protests have arguably posed an even sterner test for Tusk, however, who won power in a general election last October at the head of a fragile four-party coalition, and who has declared himself “the most pro-Ukrainian politician in Europe.”

Additional reporting by Jan Cienski and Douglas Busvine.