MOSCOW, March 26 Restriction on food imports from Ukraine to EU countries will contribute to the prolongation of the conflict, the Financial Times reports, citing the words of the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solsky.
“»In an interview with the publication, the official said that additional restrictions, causing fierce disputes within the EU itself and aimed at calming angry European farmers , will hit Kiev’s sources of income and increase the likelihood that the fighting will drag on,” the material says.
The politician also claims that it is not Ukraine that is to blame for the decline in grain prices in Europe, but abundant harvests in the United States and South America.
“»Eighty percent of the problems that are usually associated with Ukrainian exports do not exist. They are made up,» Solsky complained.
In June 2022, the European Union abolished duties on all goods coming from Ukraine, but this led to problems with the sale of products to European farmers. At the end of March 2023, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia turned to the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, with a request to intervene in the crisis. The EC adopted temporary restrictive measures to eliminate logistical difficulties that lasted for several months, and then obliged Kiev to introduce export controls.
Subsequently, the authorities of Slovakia, Hungary and Poland announced that they were extending the ban unilaterally, and Ukraine filed a complaint with the WTO. In response, three EU countries announced that they would boycott meetings of the coordination platform on Ukrainian grain.