Poland suspends agriculture talks with Ukraine amid corruption scandal at Agrarian Policy Ministry
MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - Poland has suspended negotiations with Ukraine due to the "absence of any desire" to communicate with representatives of the Ukrainian Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry involved in corrupt schemes, Ukrainian media reported, quoting Deputy Polish Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Michal Kolodziejczak.
"The negotiations are on hold because some representatives of their [Ukrainian side] have been accused of corruption," Klodziejczak said in a comment for dziennik.pl.
"This issue must be clarified," he said.
"We planned another round of negotiations for May 14, but they were cancelled," Klodziejczak said, adding that the Polish authorities would obviously not negotiate "with people accused of corruption."
Trade in agricultural products is a sore point in relations between Ukraine and Poland. Polish farmers, like those from a number of other EU countries, are suffering from an inflow of cheap food from Ukraine, which since 2022 has enjoyed the right to duty-free supplies of its goods, including farm produce, to the EU. Poland has at national level imposed a number of restrictions on the transit and import of agricultural products from Ukraine to protect the local market. Polish farmers have been staging protests on the border between the two countries, blocking the movement of trucks through checkpoints, since February. The blockade of the last checkpoint was lifted at the end of April.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said he hoped for a pragmatic, mutually advantageous basis for further relations with Poland.
"The Ukrainian-Polish border has been practically unblocked. Hopefully, we have closed this page in our relations with Poland, which will have a pragmatic, mutually advantageous basis from now on," Shmygal said at a government meeting on April 30.
The Ukrainian Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry said on April 29 that ministries and associations were continuing talks and had agreed on the monthly exchange of agricultural transit statistics to keep the situation under control. The agriculture ministers of Ukraine and Poland were due to have their next meeting on May 7 to discuss terms of cooperation between national agrarian sectors in summer.
The Verkhovna Rada dismissed Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Nikolai Solsky at a session on May 9. On April 23, the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine or NABU notified Solsky he was suspected of seizing state land worth UAH 291 million and attempting to seize land worth another UAH 190 million.
The High Anti-Corruption Court ruled to apply a preventive measure to Solsky in the form of detention for 60 days, until June 24, 2024 inclusive, with the possibility of posting bail in the amount of 25,000 subsistence minimums for able-bodied persons, namely UAH 75.7 million, which can be posted either by the suspect himself or by another person.
In addition to Solsky, 12 more participants in the criminal scheme are under suspicion, including the former head of StateGeoCadastre of Ukraine, the head of StateGeoCadastre in the Sumy region, two StateGeoCadastre curators, officials from StateGeoCadastre in the Sumy region, the director of an agricultural holding and others complicit who in the crime.
The actions of these persons qualify under Part 5.191 (misappropriation, embezzlement of property or taking possession of it through abuse of official position) and Part 3.27 (organization and management in the preparation and commission of a criminal offense), Part 3.15 (unfinished attempt to commit a criminal offense) and Part 5.191 (appropriation or embezzlement of someone else's property that was entrusted to a person or was in his charge) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Solsky submitted his resignation from the post of Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food on April 25. He was taken into custody on April 26 in the courtroom and escorted to detention. A few hours later, bail of UAH 75.7 million was posted for the minister. He was released on bail by the chairman of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, Maria Didukh, and the deputy head of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, Denis Marchuk. Solsky was prohibited from communicating with other suspects, from leaving Kyiv, and was required to wear an electronic bracelet.