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Poland needs Ukraine as anti-Russian toolkit, says diplomat

Poland and Hungary on April 16 announced a temporary ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Russian Foreign Ministry Press S

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Russian Foreign Ministry Press S

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Ukraine is beneficial for Poland only as a tool of anti-Russian policy, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Monday.

"Can you imagine, this is how Poland talks to Ukraine, while it still needs it as a subject, as an anti-Russian tool," she wrote, commenting on the words of Poland's Minister of Economic Development and Technology Waldemar Buda about the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain, "And when the border will be erased and the rest of Ukraine will be absorbed by Warsaw, then no one will talk to the local population at all."

Zakharova added that such a decision "is very revealing from the point of view of exposing the Westerners' imaginary concern for the hungry and needy for food."

Earlier, the Polish minister recalled that the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain also concerned its transit to third countries.

Poland and Hungary on April 16 announced a temporary ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine. It will be in effect until June 30. Both countries said they were forced to take this measure because of the lack of response from the European Commission to its demands to provide European aid to Hungarian and Polish farmers who are suffering significant losses due to the overstocking of these countries' markets with agricultural products from Ukraine.

On Friday, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic called for creating a single European mechanism for buying Ukrainian grain and introducing EU customs quotas on agricultural products from Ukraine. On Thursday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Slovakia imposed a temporary ban on the processing and sale of grain from Ukraine in the country. The ban also applies to flour already produced from it.

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Ukraine crisis Foreign policy Ukraine Poland Maria Zakharova

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