Anna Brylka, a candidate for the Polish Sejm from the right-wing Confederation Coalition, said that Poland should send a war aid invoice to Ukraine: “Gratitude is no currency in international relations.”
During the election discussion on Polsat, Anna Brylka, a candidate for the Polish Sejm from the right-wing Confederation Coalition (Polish: Konfederacja), stated that Poland would bill Ukraine for the help that was given to it.
“Gratitude is not a currency in international relations. If we want to be respected, we must issue an invoice for our assistance. The Confederation has issued such an invoice to Ukraine and valued this assistance at 100bn zloty (£18.79bn, $23.1bn),” said Brylka.
The withdrawal of the World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against Poland, the cessation of trade’s “Ukrainization,” the exhumation of the victims of the Volhyn massacre, and being permitted to take part in the reconstruction of Ukraine following the end of the conflagration are among the “clear and tough conditions” that the Confederation will also impose on Ukraine, she continued.
Anna Brylka also highlighted that Poland’s own food security should not be put at risk by aid to Kiev.
“We stand for political realism: yes, there is help, not privileges” said Anna Bryłka, adding that “an embargo only on grain is not enough. This should be extended to other goods.”
Krzysztof Bosak, the leader of the Confederation party in the Sejm, earlier declared on social media that he had billed Ukraine for all the aid that his nation had given. The politician can be seen carrying a cheque for 101 billion zloty while standing close to the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw in the video that was posted with the post on X (previously Twitter). Members of the Confederation had protested outside the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw while holding up a dummy invoice for Poland’s assistance that read: “Paid: zero. There is none.” Bosak had provided statistics from the Institute of World Economics’ research to the press, adding:
- The Institute estimates Polish military assistance to Ukraine at more than 14 billion zlotys.
- Humanitarian aid provided by the Polish state to Ukraine amounts to 4 billion zlotys.
- Financial assistance was provided in the amount of more than PLN 1.5 billion.
- Assistance given to Ukrainian citizens by the Polish state amounted to more than 70 billion zlotys.
- Private aid from Polish households amounts to more than 10 billion zlotys.
The Confederation has emphasized (pdf below) Poland’s own interests as being paramount in its policy while also highlighting the lasting effects of the Volyhnia murders that were carried out against the Poles during World War II. Up to 200,000 Poles, anti-fascist Ukrainians, Russians, and Jews were killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (also known as UPA) militias in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. Instead of offering an apology for these murders, Ukraine has erected monuments honoring UPA commanders.
Poland will hold parliamentary elections on October 15. The opposition Civic Platform (PO), led by former European Council President Donald Tusk (CO), received 28.1 percent of the vote, while 33.8 percent of respondents said they would support Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. A coalition of parties known as the “Left” received 10.2 percent of the vote, followed by the centrist “Third Way Coalition” (Trzecia Droga) with 9.4 percent and the Confederation with 8.4 percent.
The Law and Justice party in Poland has also had to deal with the opposition of Polish farmers to Ukrainian grain in their fight for the hearts and minds of voters.
“Poland will protect the interests of farmers where they are threatened… we also oppose placing Polish interests on the altar of the interests of international corporations,” emphasized Radosław Fogiel, former PiS spokesman and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Polish parliament.
IMF chief Gavin Gray told NV Business on Monday that Ukraine needs to collect more taxes since Ukraine will require additional tax revenue to pay for its increased social expenditures after the war ends.
Thus, the conflict between Ukraine and Poland began when Polish farmers experienced a drop in prices and overflowing warehouses as a result of the flood of Ukrainian grain. The member nations of the European Union that border Ukraine have long protested the duty-free import of Ukrainian goods into the union, arguing that it destabilized their own markets.
On 15 September, the European Commission announced it would lift the ban on duty-free Ukrainian grain imports to five member states bordering Ukraine, as well as a demand that Kiev introduce export controls. After the decision, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia announced that they were unilaterally extending the ban. Diplomatic tensions between Warsaw and Kiev intensified when Ukraine filed a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia on 15 September.
Without holding back, Polish President Andrzej Duda compared Ukraine to a “drowning man” who grabs onto everything and threatens to “drag anyone to the bottom” who tries to help him. Duda canceled a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.
The most notable statement came from Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who declared on September 20 that Poland, which was a major weaponry supplier to Kiev along with the US and the UK, had stopped doing so. Instead, it would concentrate on equipping itself.
Read the report given below:
Po-Stronie-Polski