Poland will allocate 20 million euros to support the “Graine from Ukraine” program, which will deliver food from Ukraine to poor countries in Asia and Africa, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
“We want to support this initiative, so we are allocating 20 million euros to support President Zelenski’s initiative … We must continue supporting such initiatives of the Ukrainian president because Ukraine is suffering – and at the same time Zelenski is preparing this very generous initiative to help countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East,” Moravetski said at a press conference following the international summit on food security in Kiev on Saturday.
Also, he said, over the past few months Poland has been preparing special ways of solidarity for comprehensive support for Ukraine, including support regarding exports of goods, food, etc.
“We have prepared special ways of solidarity over the last few months, because Ukraine requires not only military support or financial support, but comprehensive support. Support in terms of exports of goods, food products,” he said.
The Polish prime minister also noted that his country “cannot go back to business as usual with Russia, because that would mean that Poland would not pay attention to Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
In addition, he stressed that Poland would continue to support Ukrainians in their heroic struggle against the Russian aggressor.
“We will never lay down our arms, we will not stop helping Ukraine’s heroic struggle, its struggle against the barbaric regime. Ukraine must be successful. I am confident of Ukraine’s victory. And let 2023 be the year of victory and restoration of Ukraine,” Moravetsky concluded.
At a meeting on Friday, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine agreed to increase the amount of a concessional loan to Poland by EUR 60 million under an intergovernmental agreement for the implementation of investment projects.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance, the total amount of the soft loan that Poland will provide now amounts to EUR 160 million.
The funds provided will go to Ukravtodor – EUR 94.1 million (development of road infrastructure at the approaches to five border crossing points on the Ukrainian-Polish border), the State Customs Service – EUR 58.9 million (improvement of border crossing points Shehyni, Krakovets, Rava-Ruska, purchase of mobile scanning systems at border crossing points Yahodyn, Shehyni, Krakovets, Rava-Ruska) and the Administration of the State Border Service – EUR 7 million (purchase of unmanned aerial systems and border monitoring equipment).
In addition to increasing the loan amount, the government decree regulates the issue of extending the deadline for concluding contracts by two years – until December 31, 2024, and provides an opportunity to amend contracts concluded in 2017-2018 to increase their value.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the requirement for a minimum of 60% of expenses of Polish origin for the purchase of technical means of customs control will also be cancelled.
Poland is holding talks with NATO allies and is analyzing the possibility of resorting to Article 4 of the NATO consultation treaty, the Polish presidential office said, citing Polish National Security Directorate head Jacek Syvera.
“President Andrzej Duda just finished a conversation with (NATO Secretary General) Jens Stoltenberg. We are verifying the grounds for NATO Article 4. We are in contact with our allies and awaiting talks with the U.S. side,” the tweet read.
Earlier, Latvian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said of the possibility of invoking NATO Article 4.
“My first reaction would be that after the Russians hit the Polish territory, to engage Art. 4, also as an air defense of the Ukrainian sky,” he tweeted.
Article 4 of NATO states: “The Contracting Parties will always consult each other in the event that, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Contracting Parties is threatened.
The 1,570 Starlink system terminals handed over by Poland have already arrived in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov said.
“This is especially important now, because there are problems with electricity due to Russian shelling. When the light disappears, mobile operators and Internet providers do not work in some regions. So let’s equip the country with public WI-FI hotspots where people can be connected,” Fedorov wrote in a telegram on Thursday.
He noted that some of the terminals will be given to civilian administrations in the de-occupied territories. “In addition, we will provide Starlinks “Ukrzaliznytsia”, so that passengers and employees have a stable mobile communication and Internet,” the minister stressed.
Fedorov specified that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion with the assistance of the Ministry of Digital from donors and partners Ukraine has received more than 20 thousand Starlink terminals.
“Of these, 5 thousand with the support of the Polish government. Now another 1,570 terminals from our strategic partners will help Ukraine stay connected. I thank the Polish government for its constant support and ZAMMLER group of logistics companies for the free delivery of the new batch of terminals to Ukraine,” summed up the head of the Mincifra.
Ukrainian agrarians have applied to the authorities of the Republic of Poland with a request to lay a broad-gauge railway line (with a gauge of 1520 mm) across its territory, which will connect the port of Polish Gdansk with the Ukrainian and Lithuanian railway networks to export agricultural products and ensure strategically important imports through western borders of Ukraine.
The corresponding appeal to the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda and its Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was sent by the leading Ukrainian agrarian associations: the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (VAR), the Agrarian Union of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Agrarian Business Club, the All-Ukrainian Association of Communities, the Union of Poultry Breeders of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, reportedly on the VAR website on Friday.
According to the appeal, one of the largest and closest European ports to Ukraine is the port of Klaipeda (Lithuania), which has significant free transshipment capacities. However, due to differences in the gauge between Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic countries, there is a need to reload the contents of wagons at border crossings between countries or rearrange wagon bogies, which does not allow to fully realize the export-import potential of the port of Klaipeda.
In turn, the use of vehicles or containers as an alternative to railway transportation is poorly suited for transporting bulk bulk cargo (coal, ore, grain, metal) over long distances and increases their cost to an uncompetitive level. In addition, in the case of using container terminals, the capacity of the railway line will be limited by their capacity, which will also prevent full use of the potential.
“In our opinion, the laying of a railway line with a gauge of 1520 mm across the territory of the Republic of Poland, which will connect the Ukrainian and Lithuanian railway networks, as well as connect the port of Gdansk to them for the transport of goods and passengers, will solve the above-mentioned problems,” the appeal of the Ukrainian farmers.
At the same time, it is emphasized that such a logistical path will give significant positive financial and economic effects for Poland and Ukraine, not only due to an increase in export-import capacities, but also due to the unification of the economic space of Poland, the Baltic countries and Ukraine.
Such a project can be implemented through the reconstruction of the existing railway network and the construction of a combined track, or the construction of a separate railway branch.
As reported, in June 2022, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Yaroslav Kaczynski said that the issue of building this broad-gauge railway track had already been tentatively approved by the Polish and Ukrainian governments.
In early June, the VAR already proposed to build 300 km of broad-gauge railway tracks in Poland for direct grain deliveries to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, which would allow not to overload the contents of wagons at the Ukraine-Poland and Poland-Lithuania border crossings due to the difference in railway gauge in these countries.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock told her Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau that Berlin would not pay reparations for World War II to Poland under any circumstances, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
“The question of reparations, as you know, from the point of view of the German authorities, is closed,” Burbock said during a press conference in Warsaw. The conference took place after ministerial talks on the subject.
In turn, Rau expressed the hope that Germany’s position could change.
On Monday, the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry sent a note to Germany, which requested about $1.3 trillion in reparations for material and other damage that Germany inflicted on Poland during the occupation in 1939-1945.
