Ukraine summoned Poland’s ambassador on Tuesday, after a top Polish official suggested Kyiv should show more gratitude towards its neighbour.
Poland is an essential ally to Ukraine, bordering both the beleaguered nation and Russia’s main ally, Belarus. It’s also a member of NATO unlike Ukraine.
But, it seems tensions have risen between the two friendly nations this week.
Poland’s ambassador to Ukraine, Bartosz Cichocki, was invited to Kyiv by Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs on Tuesday.
It came after Marcin Przydacz – head of the international policy bureau and secretary of state in the chancellery of the Polish president – suggested Ukraine should be more grateful for Poland’s support the day before.
Przydacz had told the Polish media that the EU should extend a ban on some Ukraine exports to defend the interests of Polish farmers – while adding that Ukraine should “start appreciating the role Poland has played for Ukraine in recent months and years”.
He added: “Ukraine should start appreciating what Poland is doing for it.”
Hours after that, the deputy head of Ukrainian president’s office, Andrii Sybiha, hit back: “We categorically reject the attempts to some Polish politicians to impose on Polish society the baseless idea that Ukraine does not appreciate the help from Poland.”
He claimed the country is grateful to all of its allies, and that Ukraine actually is “protecting the values and security of our region”, in the interests of both Poland and the entire free world.
This was followed up by confirmation from a spokesperson for Kyiv’s foreign ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, on Tuesday, that Ukraine had spoken to the Polish ambassador about the incident.
Nikolenko said: “During the meeting, it was emphasised that the statements about the alleged ingratitude of the Ukrainians for the assistance of the Republic of Poland do not reflect reality and as such are unacceptable.”
And shortly after that, the Polish authorities revealed they had summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland in connection to the comments, too, although further details about that meeting are to be revealed.
It comes after the UK’s own defence secretary Ben Wallace said Ukraine had to show “gratitude” to the West to keep its support last month.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy then had a sarcastic response saying, “we can make a point to wake up (every) morning and thank him.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK was later fired after criticising the president’s response.
Amid this diplomatic spat, Poland claims to be dealing with an ongoing issue on its border with Belarus.
On Tuesday, Warsaw said it was rushing troops to its eastern border, accusing Russia’s closest ally of breaching its airspace with military helicopters.
Belarus has denied any event and said Poland was making it up to justify accumulating its troops on the border – Warsaw had already started moving more than 1,000 of its own troops closer to the country’s edge before this incident.
The Belarusian defence ministry claimed they saw Poland’s accusation as an “old wives’ tale” and claimed there were no border violations by helicopters.
But, Poland’s defence ministry said it was sending “additional forces and resources, including combat helicopters” and it had let NATO and Belarus’ charge d’affaires know.
Belarus has become a larger player in the war recently although no Belarusian troops are fighting in the war yet.
Belarus has been taunting Poland along with Russia though, with its president Alexander Lukashenko joking Warsaw should be appreciative that Belarus took the Wagner mercenaries in after their aborted coup attempt in June.