Polish Foreign Ministry Says Current Relations with Ukraine Are "Not the Best"

Paweł Jabłoński, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister, has said relations with Ukraine "have not been the best lately" due to remarks made by Ukrainian government officials.

According to RMF FM, Paweł Jabłoński said on Polish radio there are many issues on which Poland and Ukraine "cannot agree".

The representative of the Polish Foreign Ministry also mentioned an upcoming meeting with a representative of the Ukrainian Embassy.

"The conversation will be frank. It will be very specific, as always. We will convey our assessment of the current state of our relations, which, unfortunately, due to the remarks made by some representatives of the Ukrainian authorities recently, is not the best. No one is hiding this," Jabłoński said.

He believes that the representatives of Ukraine "expressed some [strong] emotions", but, he said, Poland remains "lenient" because Ukraine is under attack. The Polish deputy foreign minister added that Ukraine "should not attack its allies either".

"We follow a policy of Polish national interests. We support Ukraine to the extent that it aligns with Polish national interests. This has always been the case and will always be the case," the Polish official added.

On 1 August, Polish Ambassador to Ukraine Bartosz Cichocki, was summoned to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in Kyiv over allegations made by Marcin Przydacz, Chief of the Office for International Policy in Polish President Andrzej Duda's administration.

In an interview with the Polish media, Przydacz argued that Ukraine had received a great deal of support from Poland and that it "should start appreciating the role that Poland has played for Ukraine in recent months and years". The Polish official's remarks were made in the context of the situation regarding the blocking of Ukrainian grain exports through Poland.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki sharply condemned Kyiv's decision to summon the Polish ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over Przydacz's remarks.

As a response, Poland summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Zvarych.