Ukraine Sends PM to Polish Border Amid Blockade Row

Ukraine's president said he would send the country's prime minister to the Polish border Friday for talks on ending a blockade by Polish farmers event though Warsaw has refused immediate ministerial negotiations.

Relations between the neighbors have soured over the blockade, which Kyiv argues threatens its exports and has even held up deliveries of much-needed weapons for its war against Russia.

"The group, headed by the prime minister (Denys Shmyhal), will be at the border with Poland today. Whether Polish colleagues will be there is their personal decision," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Zelensky proposed the meeting earlier this week but has so far received a cold shoulder from Warsaw, which does not want to antagonize Polish farmers.

"We have said it openly, that we are ready with proposals, with decisions, with steps towards each other," Zelensky said.

Zelensky said the meeting would have to take place Friday because Ukraine would be marking the second anniversary of Russia's invasion on Saturday. 

 "I don't know whether the Polish side will be there or not," Zelensky said, in a sign relations between the neighbors had taken a significant hit. 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has offered to chair inter-governmental talks planned in Warsaw next month, but not to hold talks at the border this week.  

Tusk told reporters Thursday that negotiations were ongoing and he would chair the talks in March. 

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"The meeting of both governments will be held in Warsaw on March 28," Tusk said, adding that it was "better to continue these talks at the technical, organizational level".

The farmers this month began blocking three crossing points in anger at what they see as cheap Ukrainian grain imports.

The fresh protests mark another blow to relations between Ukraine and Poland, which had only weeks before managed to quell a similar two-month blockade by Polish truckers.