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Poland and Ukraine strained as Rota apologises
Summary
A look back at 25 September 2023, after a run of diplomatic frictions involving Kyiv, Warsaw and Ottawa.
What was straining Ukraine's relations with its partners on 25 September 2023? Reports from the preceding days pointed to two separate rows, one with Poland and one in Canada.
On 24 September 2023, Canadian Speaker of the House Anthony Rota apologised for inviting Yaroslav Hunka to Parliament during a visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It had emerged that Hunka fought for the Galicia Division under Nazi command.
Warsaw and Kyiv at odds
The Polish dispute had built up since 20 September 2023. That day the Polish Foreign Ministry summoned Vasyl Zvarych, Ukraine's ambassador to Poland, to deliver a strong protest over Zelenskyy's address to the UN General Assembly. Zelenskyy had said that some European countries' actions indirectly help Russia, a remark that drew condemnation from Poland.
Also on 20 September 2023, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that Poland would stop supplying Ukraine with weapons. The announcement came amid tensions over Poland's import ban on Ukrainian agricultural products.
A scandal at home
Polish politics had its own pressures. On 19 September 2023, documents allegedly from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that the Polish embassy in Minsk had issued 784,173 visas to individuals from 65 countries with the aid of a Moscow-based company. The reports said people denied entry at the Belarus–European Union border might also have received visas. The affair surfaced in the context of the 2023 Polish parliamentary election.
