Opinion: Poland, Ukraine are natural antagonists
Poland has stated that it will no longer supply Ukraine with any weapons. In general, relations between the countries have recently worsened. Dmitry Shvaiba, the Chairman of the Minsk Regional Organisation of the Trade Union of Workers in the Chemical, Mining and Oil Industries, has explained why this is happening.
In his talk with Alfa Radio, Mr. Shvaiba noted that the observed situation in relations between the two countries is absolutely clear in historical and other contexts, “Poland and Ukraine are natural antagonists, and we have talked about this more than once. The natural contradictions – that have accumulated over the years and cannot be overcome under any circumstances – are coming to the fore. Actually, the short period when the countries shared the single direction does not exist any more, and Poland’s serious thoughts about stopping supplies of weapons to Ukraine have common sense. Such a move will generally sober up the situation.”
Definitely, the fact that the countries compete with each other in the issue of the supply of food, in particular grain, plays an important role, and Mr. Shvaiba explained, “These two super-agrarian neighbouring countries, which have announced their strategy, are competitors in the global food market. Ukraine supplied grain as part of the grain deal. Russia has stopped supporting the Black Sea initiative, and problems with Poland have escalated again. In addition, internal Polish problems matter: there is a rather difficult situation there for the ruling party, which in its national, Catholic context relies on the rural population, farmers, residents of small towns – it needs a serious step that people would positively perceive and make the right choice from the point of view of the authorities at the vote in mid-October. Moreover, even earlier, Ukraine began to answer Poland back. Actually, the integration of these two countries, additional rights for Poles in Ukraine and some other aspects looked very strange from the very beginning, since contradictions and antagonism are insurmountable. On the one hand, Ukraine – as an exporter – needs access to the world food market; on the other hand, Poland blocks it, because it earns good money on it. By the way, the country also makes money on the military and transport infrastructure that it helps Kiev with. Warsaw has been relying on this profit for many years. It earned money in the same way, for example, when Soviet troops moved to a group of troops in Germany. It was an extremely expensive campaign, and it was easier to fly around Poland by plane. Something similar is happening now. Rzeszow, where the main logistics support system along the NATO-Ukraine line is concentrated, in my opinion, is connected to the Ukrainian territory by two bridges and a tunnel. In fact, Russia, by and large, has not even begun to solve this issue yet.”
In conclusion, Mr. Shvaiba suggested that the antagonism between Poland and Ukraine will continue to grow. “There is a behavioural model. If a country is restricted in some way, it begins to struggle. Within the framework of this fight, the relations between Poland and Ukraine are likely to deteriorate."
