Polish PM Tusk to meet protesting farmers on Thursday

Polish PM Tusk to meet protesting farmers on Thursday

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will meet protesting farmers' leaders on Thursday as demonstrations continued across the country, he said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian officials held lengthy talks with their Polish counterparts to tackle the border disruptions triggered by the protests. Ukraine said there had been no question of closing the joint border.

Farmers across Europe have been protesting against constraints placed on them by EU regulations meant to tackle climate change, as well as rising costs and what they say is unfair competition from outside the EU, particularly Ukraine.

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On Tuesday, thousands of Polish farmers took to the streets of Warsaw.

"I have convened an agricultural summit in Warsaw for tomorrow ... I will meet with the leaders of all protesting groups," Tusk told a news conference.

"We have a very important problem. We are the most pro-Ukrainian nation when it comes to aid, but we have the biggest problems in Europe resulting from the war."

He said an EU proposal to limit the amount of food products arriving from Ukraine was unacceptable and that Poland wanted the reference amount to be set at levels from before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Tusk said he was ready to take tough decisions.

"I do not hide the fact that we are talking to Ukraine about temporarily closing the border," he said.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said border closures were not under discussion.

"Ukraine is not going to close its borders with Poland. No one from the Ukrainian side is negotiating about this," Kubrakov wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

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"Our people are fighting for their existence in a war with the Russian aggressor. For us, a stable border is a matter of survival."

Ukraine, he said, had proposed constructive solutions and taken steps to ease border tensions.

"We expect appropriate decisions from the Polish government to ensure that the situation does not reach a deadlock," he added.

Ukrainian Trade Representative Taras Kachka, writing on Facebook, said officials from the two sides had held four hours of intense discussions.

"We found common ground and are working on constructive decisions to keep the border open, taking into account the interests of Polish farmers and Ukraine," he wrote. "It is not simple but it is possible."