This is the best summary I could come up with:
As part of a deal meant to protect those countries, the European Union allowed some grain to transit through them, but prohibited domestic sales.
Brussels’ decision to let that deal expire at midnight on Friday revived an issue that has threatened European Union unity on support for Ukraine.
Lawmakers in Bulgaria went in the other direction, agreeing on Thursday to resume imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, The Associated Press reported, saying the ban had cut into tax revenue.
ban, which was implemented in May and expired at midnight on Friday, covered exports of wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The pushback against Ukrainian grain imports from Europe’s formerly communist eastern lands was a rare, and awkward, note of discord on the continent after remarkable European support for Ukraine’s war effort for more than a year after the full-scale invasion of February 2022.
This summer, Russia abandoned a deal that allowed Ukraine to safely ship tens of millions of tons or grain via the Black Sea despite the fighting, raising renewed concerns about a global food crisis.
The original article contains 634 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Polands government does not care for Ukraine. Their entire support was an election campaign maneuver, of course in conjunction with “see the evil Germans!” lying about the extend of the polish support and the factually far greater support by most other European nations. If Putin would offer the PiS an attractive deal, i am sure they would drop all support.
We didn’t expect better from Hungary, but the people of Poland need to wake up and stop supporting this government that is robbing them blind and selling the country out.
The inconsistent solidarity during wartime sends a strange message. Beyond that, european politicians claim to be concerned about inflation and cost of living, yet they block a cheap source of grain, as well as spending millions to destroy french wine, and subsidise exporting chicken to africa - it doesn’t make sense to me. Is this really an efficient way to buy a few votes ? I suppose it may be partly brinkmanship regarding who should pay to develop infrastructure to facilitate transit - for example extending the Ukrainian-gauge railway beyond Katowice, make another to the port of Gdansk, and later make standard gauge railways into central Ukraine. It could be done, build rather than ban.
