Zelensky's remarks were absolutely unacceptable because they falsely equated Poland’s role in Ukraine with Russia’s despite all that the former government and civil society have done to support Kyiv and its refugees.

Axar.az informs that Andrew Korybko, an American political scientist living in Moscow, a Ph.D. in political sciences, said this in his statement.

CNN’s Luke McGee published a piece on Saturday declaring that “Poland’s spat with Ukraine angered many in Europe and was a gift for Putin”, which downplays the real reasons behind the Polish-Ukrainian dispute that Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk recently hinted was Germany’s fault. The preceding two hyperlinked pieces provide the background context for a better understanding of the forthcoming critique and subsequent analysis of CNN’s spin on this issue.

McGee began by describing Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s decision to stop sending modern arms to Ukraine as “the latest example of more confrontational behaviour from Poland’s government toward Kyiv”, though without citing other alleged incidents. He also dishonestly omitted the part from Zelensky’s UNGA rant where he strongly implied that Poland was the country that the Ukrainian leader accused of “helping set the stage to a Moscow actor.”

This false framing of Morawiecki’s announcement manipulates unaware readers into thinking that Poland is bullying Ukraine when the reality is that it’s actually Ukraine that’s bullying Poland, which will be returned to at the end of this piece. Moving along, CNN’s UK and European Policy and Politics Editor then implied that the ruling “Law & Justice” (PiS) party’s unilateral extension of its Ukrainian grain restrictions is purely motivated by an interest to retain the rural vote ahead of the 15 October elections.

He wrote that “Farmers are motivated political agents and citizens tend to care about food security, sometimes disproportionately and irrationally. And the PiS will need rural votes to remain in power.” This assessment makes it seem like it’s abnormal for anyone to care about food security even though it’s actually an issue of universal concern. There’s nothing “irrational” in caring about food prices or farmers’ livelihoods so that part of McGee’s article is yet another example of his dishonesty.

Therefore, unilaterally extending Ukrainian grain restrictions makes perfect sense from the standpoint of Poland’s objective national interests, which discredits McGee’s description of this policy as “a tub-thumping, headline-grabbing, nationalist gesture.” He’s not the only one in CNN’s article who’s biased against Poland since the unnamed European officials whom he then cites also don’t have a favourable impression of that country or its two latest moves either.

One European official was quoted as saying “This is all elections blabla…farmers are a PiS constituency”, while another told him that “[Poles] have to play muscles now because of the elections.” A third European official who was described as a “senior” one said that “Ukraine already offered Poland a solution on grain. Which is why they’re so pissed off at Poland. As are 24 member states who have been bullied for 18 months by Poland for not doing enough to support Ukraine.”

An EU Commission official also that “It needs to be seen in the context of the upcoming elections, the nationalist agenda of the current government and aggressive stances on the grain issue, migration and anything they see as a ‘threat’ to national interests of Poland. They also attack Brussels and the EU when it fits their agenda. It’s a desperate effort to mobilize the voter if you have no substance to offer then you start to create and blame an outside enemy to cover up for domestic policy failures.”