What did 21 September 2023 reveal about Kyiv's ties with Warsaw?
A retrospective on the day Russian missiles struck Ukraine again while a dispute with Poland over weapons and grain deepened.
What did the Ukrainian-Polish quarrel look like on 21 September 2023, the day after it escalated sharply? The war itself continued without pause: at least two civilians were killed and 21 others injured in Russian missile strikes across Ukraine, according to reports at the time.
The diplomatic backdrop was tense. On 20 September 2023, the Polish Foreign Ministry summoned Vasyl Zvarych, Ukraine's ambassador to Poland, to convey a strong protest over a statement by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations General Assembly. Zelenskyy had said that the actions of some European countries indirectly help Russia, a remark that drew condemnation from Poland.
The same day, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that Poland would stop supplying Ukraine with weapons. The announcement came amid tensions between the two countries over Poland's import ban on Ukrainian agricultural products.
A government under its own pressure
Warsaw's tone also had a domestic context, which the reports of the preceding days made visible. On 19 September 2023, documents allegedly from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs were reported to indicate that the Polish embassy in Minsk had issued 784,173 visas to individuals from 65 countries with the aid of a Moscow-based company. The reports said that people denied entry at the Belarus-European Union border during the border crisis may also have been granted visas. The affair was tied to the 2023 Polish parliamentary election.
Other news from the period
Ukraine featured in foreign reporting in other ways as well. On 19 September 2023, CNN, citing a source in the Ukrainian military, reported that Ukrainian special forces were likely behind recent drone strikes and a ground operation against Wagner Group mercenaries in Sudan.
Elsewhere in the region, on 21 September 2023, four people were killed and five injured in an explosion at a gas pipeline in Vrancea County, Romania.
What the day showed
Taken together, the reports from 19 to 21 September 2023 show a Ukraine that was under continued missile attack while its relationship with one of its neighbours came under visible strain. The dispute over agricultural imports, the summoning of an ambassador and the announcement on weapons supplies all fell within the span of a single day. For Kyiv, the question was how to keep the argument about trade and rhetoric from spilling further into the practical business of defence.
