Zelenskiy meets no officials during Polish visitVolodymyr Zelenskiy awarded two Polish volunteers state awards during the Ukrainian president’s stopover on Saturday, but did not meet any officials as relations between the two countries are strained over grain imports.
Poland decided last week to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports, shaking Kyiv’s relationship with a neighbour that has been one of its staunchest allies during the Russian invasion.
Reuters also reports that Poland’s prime minister told Zelenskiy on Friday not to “insult” Poles, maintaining harsh rhetoric towards Kyiv ahead of elections on 15 October. The ruling Law and Justice party has been criticised by the far right for what it says is the government’s subservient attitude to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy angered his neighbours when he told the UN general assembly in New York that Kyiv was working to preserve land routes for grain exports, but that the “political theatre” around imports was only helping Moscow.
Zelenskiy addresses the UN general assembly in New York City on Tuesday. Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/ReutersOn Saturday, on his way back home, he handed awards to Bianka Zalewska, a journalist who helped transport wounded children to Polish hospitals, and Damian Duda, who gathered a medical team to help wounded soldiers near the front line.
Zelenskiy thanked all Poles who “from the first days opened their families, their homes, opened themselves up and helped”.
I believe that any challenges on our common path are nothing compared to the fact that there is such strength between our people.
Duda told Reuters that Zelenskiy was very informal at the meeting, like an old friend.
The head of the Polish president’s International Policy Office, Marcin Przydacz, told Onet.pl website that his office did not receive any proposal for a meeting during Zelenskiy’s stay in Poland.