KYIV – Amid renewed Russian military aggression on the Donbas frontlines, which has brought a new round of dead and wounded, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hosted a visit by Polish President Andrzej Duda on December 14-15 during which they consolidated their cooperation across many spheres.
Riding a wave of conservative political victories in Europe this year, Mr. Duda went to great lengths to demonstrate Poland’s commitment to Ukraine. He announced that he will advocate for Mr. Poroshenko and his delegation to “have a seat at the table” at the next NATO summit, which will occur in Warsaw in early July.
In the context of their plans to relaunch a presidential consultation committee to discuss projects and initiatives, the two leaders went so far as to agree on settling remaining conflicts over culture in order to ensure regional cooperation on crucial issues of security and defense.
“In giving deep honor to the victims of the tragic pages of history, the common responsibility of Ukraine and Poland is to ensure their descendants a peaceful present day. We reached full agreement on this issue,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told a joint press conference following their meeting.
Among the other key agreements to emerge from the talks was a 1 billion euro currency swap – exchanging that equivalent in Polish zloty and Ukrainian hryvni – in what was described by Mr. Poroshenko as an effort to enhance Polish and Ukrainian trade upon the January 1 launch of the Ukraine-EU Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area.
(On the other hand, Dmytro Boyarchuk, the executive director of the CASE Ukraine Center for Social and Economic Research, said Ukraine has used such currency swaps exclusively for building its international reserves rather than for business activity, which could be the genuine aim for the Polish side in this deal.)
The Polish leadership also agreed to offer consultations to the Ukrainian government and business for the free trade area’s launch, and even offered the Polish market as a springboard from which to promote Ukrainian products on the European market, Mr. Poroshenko said.
The day after this announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ceasing as of January 1 the free trade zone that his government launched with Ukraine in 2011.
As part of the plan to boost trade with Poland, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced during his meeting with Mr. Duda that Ukraine is ready to buy up to 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas from its western neighbor once construction of an interconnector between their transit systems is completed, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.
“If it will be built, you will be supplying very much gas and we will be buying a lot of that gas,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said. “And together we will be more profitable and more energy-independent.”
In his remarks, Mr. Poroshenko thanked the Polish government for helping to complete the technical-economic report on building the interconnector. At the same time, Presidents Poroshenko and Duda condemned as unacceptable Russia’s promotion of its Nord Stream pipeline, which supplies natural gas directly to Germany in bypassing Ukraine and Poland and depriving them of their transit fees.
They are coordinating with Italy, Slovakia, the Baltic states, the Scandinavian states and other EU states to ensure the European Commission decides to restrict the project that Mr. Poroshenko described as making Ukraine and Poland more dependent on Russian gas.
“This project makes no economic sense and is only political,” Mr. Poroshenko said. “And we believe it’s unacceptable to create the possibility of putting political pressure on EU countries, as well as on Ukraine, as a result of fulfilling this project.”
(Dmytro Boyarchuk, the executive director of the CASE Ukraine Center for Social and Economic Research, disagreed, saying the project is very beneficial economically in that it increases supply and competition on the European gas market. However, Ukraine and Poland stand to lose large sums on lost transit fees from Russia to Europe.)
The two countries also are working on a project to provide electric energy to Poland from the Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant, he said.
Mr. Poroshenko also thanked Mr. Duda for his support in Ukraine’s efforts to secure a visa-free regime with the European Union. Poland has awarded the most Schengen visas to Ukrainians among EU countries, he pointed out.
They agreed to open new crossings on their shared border after Ukraine invests funds, including a loan of 100 million euros from the Polish government, to improve border infrastructure.
In the military sphere, the two leaders discussed the participation of Ukrainian soldiers in training exercises on Polish territory next year.
Meanwhile, the launch of a Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade based near Lublin, Poland, which already includes the first 500 soldiers, will bring the Ukrainian army closer to NATO standards, Mr. Poroshenko said.
“Including Ukraine in this format is also important to achieve compatibility of Ukraine’s armed forces with NATO forces and the first results are very hopeful,” he said.
In regard to the war with Russia, Mr. Duda said Poland will not ask to be included in the negotiations to implement the Minsk accords that consist of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. In August, he said that Poland and its neighbors should be included in the international talks to resolve the war in Donbas.
“We won’t interfere with the ‘Normandy format,’ but we are supporters of fulfilling the Minsk accords,” he explained. “We need to monitor the implementation of the Minsk accords and the fulfillment of their conditions.”
The Minsk accords are the first steps towards peace, yet there are no signs of them being implemented by the December 31 deadline, Mr. Duda said. Therefore, Europe’s sanctions on Russia must be extended until the accords are fulfilled, he added. His words came almost a week after a meeting of EU ambassadors decided to delay a decision on extending the sanctions, indicating a burgeoning rift among EU member-states.
In an interview published on December 16 by Reuters, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called for reviewing the sanctions against Russia “not in the coming hours, but in the coming months,” indicating that his government is considering withdrawing its support for them.
A December 21 summit in Brussels of EU member-state ambassadors is expected to renew economic sanctions against Russia for another six months.
As for cultural issues, Mr. Poroshenko lauded the cooperation that has begun between Polish and Ukrainian Institutes of National Memory. In the past, Russia has manipulated tragic chapters of history, such as the Volyn massacres of 1943, to ignite enmity between Poles and Ukrainians.
“The Ukrainian side is ready for a frank and constructive dialogue on the pages of our common history, and we agreed for this to occur in the framework of our consultation committee,” the Ukrainian president said.
“History has taught us well that when Ukrainians and Poles argue, a third party benefits. I am sure we won’t allow that. And our approach will be very responsible,” Mr. Poroshenko stated.