We asked Ukrainians as to what they think of the PolesWe asked Ukrainians as to what they think of the Poles, whether they remember our help, what do they know about the farmers' protests

We have only been conducting these talks for four intensive days, but it is already possible to identify the main axes of Polish-Ukrainian misunderstanding. Our eastern neighbours speak very positively about the Poles (we will soon publish the recordings) but mention the blocking of their exports by Poland as something incomprehensible. After all, there is no mention in the local press of the „Green Deal” or the suffocation of Polish agriculture by an uncontrolled influx of products from their country, but there are strangely laconic headlines in the media about foreign capital, the headlines of: „Polish farmers stopped our transport again”. There is no explanation, no information, just a false image of malicious intent among Poles.

In our country, however, there are the same old rumblings - because they are ungrateful - because they have changed allies and their agricultural exports are run by foreign corporations and not by the Ukrainians themselves.

The problem, however, is that the first two accusations have absolutely nothing to do with the Ukrainian people, who really have other things to do in a wartime crisis than to consider the foreign policy vectors of Volodymyr Zelenski, currently irremovable by the postponement of the presidential elections and, incidentally, by the Russian invasion as well.

„Ordinary Ukrainians” listen to anti-aircraft sirens in the afternoons, look for work, pray and die under Russian artillery fire - the Polish complaint that Ukrainian gratitude is not expressed universally and permanently is the most futile activity since the invention of the game of dice. So Ukrainians have not changed allies but at best changed the flowers on the graves of their loved ones, and the fact that the owners of their fields are so often Western investors does not cancel out the fact that the very grain of the field was harvested by the hands of the Ukrainian peasant.

And the fact that the fields are so often owned by Western investors does not erase the fact that the grain itself was harvested by the hands of the Ukrainian peasant. Even if the bulk of the profit from this production goes into the pockets of an oligarch or a Dutch businessman, it is still the fruit of the labour and commitment of the Ukrainian farmer - after all, it is not Germans or Indians who work the fields there. Meanwhile, the working conditions on the fields are indeed sometimes dramatic in Ukraine - back in May 2022, I met Mykola near Bakhmut, who was working a field between mines that local soldiers had marked for him with sticks stuck in the ground so that he could avoid the danger with his tractor. It was not a German or Dutch businessman who was heartbroken when the grain was dumped on the ground, but a Ukrainian farmer like this.

However, there is a package of our, Polish, raison d’etre here, concerning the interests of our countryside and our international position, which the Germans are also playing on the Dnieper. Still, as for our raison d’etat, how is it possible that literally no one, absolutely no one, has created, set up a Ukrainian-language news channel, not even a single youtuber has been paid to explain our actions to our neighbours and stop disinformation about Poland. It is our duty to take care of our country’s image in such countries, which are today the subject of worldwide attention. Are we fulfilling this duty, or have we chosen to wax superior over our moral high ground?

Tłum. K.J.