President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Wednesday for Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Polish President Andrzej Duda and European Union officials to come to the Ukrainian-Polish border to discuss the protests by the farmers, who are angry over what they say is unfair competition from cheaper Ukrainian imports.

Zelenskiy made clear he wanted talks before Saturday’s second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I have agreed with the prime minister of Ukraine for a meeting between the two governments, which will take place in Warsaw on March 28, and I hope that by then technical talks will lead to a fruitful meeting,” Tusk told a press conference.

Asked by a reporter whether this meant he was not going to the border for talks, Tusk said he believed he had made himself clear. He offered no direct comment on Zelenskiy’s proposal.

Tusk also reiterated his support for Kyiv’s war effort and said Poland would include border crossings with Ukraine and certain sections of roads on a list of critical infrastructure to “ensure a 100% guarantee that military aid… reaches the Ukrainian side without delays”.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on Tusk’s remarks about the March meeting, but its foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, later announced he had held talks with Polish officials in Warsaw on Thursday.

“Both governments are aiming to resolve problematic issues,” Kuleba said on the social media platform X, where he also thanked Tusk for his efforts to ensure unhindered deliveries of military aid to Ukraine.

Separately, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov told Ukrainska Pravda that Kyiv was ready for “any format” of talks to help end the border blockades.

Balancing act

Polish farmers have broad public support for their protests over high costs, cheap food imports and EU climate policies. This leaves Tusk with a difficult balancing act as he tries to maintain Warsaw’s staunch support for Kyiv in its fight against Russian invaders while addressing the farmers’ grievances.

Kyiv has said the farmer protests, which have included repeated blockades of border crossings with Ukraine, are damaging its fight to repel Russia.

Farmers continued to demonstrate across Poland on Thursday but on a smaller scale than on Tuesday.

Adrian Wawrzyniak, a spokesperson for the Solidarity farmers’ union, said protesters were blocking three crossings with Ukraine although some trucks were being let through. He also said a bridge linking Poland to the Czech Republic was being blocked, as were several roads around the country.

Farmers from the Czech Republic and other central European countries also protested on Thursday along Czech borders, blocking some crossings as they demanded changes to EU policies.

–Reporting for Reuters by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Additional reporting by Olena Harmash and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv.

The post Poland-Ukraine government talks set for March 28, farmer protests persist appeared first on Farmtario.

Restrictions imposed by the European Union in May allowed Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, while permitting transit of such cargoes for export elsewhere.

“We will extend this ban despite their disagreement, despite the European Commission’s disagreement,” Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki told a rally in the northeastern town of Elk. “We will do it because it is in the interest of the Polish farmer.”

Polish development minister Waldemar Buda said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had signed the Polish ban regulation, which would run for an indefinite period of time from midnight.

Hungary imposed a national import ban on 24 Ukrainian agricultural products, including grains, vegetables, several meat products and honey, according to a government decree published on Friday.

Slovakia’s agriculture minister followed suit announcing its own grain ban. All three bans only apply to domestic imports and do not affect transit to onward markets.

EU plea

EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Friday countries should refrain from unilateral measures against imports of Ukrainian grain. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it would respond in a “civilized fashion” if EU members break the rules.

The EU created alternative land routes, so-called Solidarity Lanes, for Ukraine to use to export its grains and oilseeds after Russia, which invaded in 2022, backed out of a U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal in July that allowed safe passage for the cargo ships.

The EU Commission said existing measures would expire as originally planned on Friday after Ukraine agreed to introduce any legal measures (including, for example, an export licensing system) within 30 days to avoid grain surges.

“It has concluded that thanks to the work of the Coordination Platform and to the temporary measures introduced on 2 May 2023, the market distortions in the five Member States bordering Ukraine have disappeared,” the European Commission said in a statement.

The EU said it will refrain from imposing any restrictions as long as the effective measures by Ukraine are in place and fully working.

Product glut

Farmers in the five countries neighbouring Ukraine have repeatedly complained about a product glut hitting their domestic prices and pushing them toward bankruptcy.

The countries, except Bulgaria, had been pushing for an extension of the ban passed its Sept. 15 expiry.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia previously said they may extend the restrictions unilaterally while Bulgaria on Thursday voted to scrap the curbs.

Romania’s government, which unlike its peers did not unilaterally enforce a ban before May, said on Friday it “regretted that a European solution to extend the ban could not be found.”

It added it was waiting for Ukraine to present its action plan of measures to prevent an import surge by Sept. 18 before deciding how to protect Romanian farmers.

Romania sees over 60 per cent of the alternate flows pass through its territory mainly via the Danube river and its farmers have threatened protests if the ban is not extended.

For the last year, Ukraine had been moving 60 per cent of its exports through the Solidarity Lanes and 40 per cent via the Black Sea thanks to the deal.

In August, about four million tonnes of Ukraine grains passed through the Solidarity Lanes of which close to 2.7 million tonnes were through the Danube. The Commission wants to increase exports through Romania further but the plan has been complicated by Russian drone attacks on Ukraine’s grain infrastructure along the Danube and near the Romanian border.

— Reporting for Reuters by Julia Payne and Alan Charlish; additional reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague and Karol Badohal in Warsaw, Boldizsar Gyori and Krisztina Than in Budapest; and Luiza Ilie in Bucharest; writing by Nina Chestney.

The post Poland, Hungary, Slovakia to continue own bans on Ukraine grain appeared first on Farmtario.