Top Zelenskyy adviser condemns EU protectionism

Two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv's Western allies are still trying to have it both ways even as Moscow settles in for a long, attritional war, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told POLITICO on March 20.

“On the one hand, you’re an ally and you must help Ukraine in the war,” Podolyak said in an interview in the country’s capital. “On the other, you are trying to protect your market in a protectionist way.”

Relations between Kyiv and its European allies have been strained by weeks of protests by farmers in Poland and elsewhere against agricultural imports from Ukraine that they worry will lower the prices of their products.

And now, EU countries are split over whether to extend duty-free imports of Ukrainian produce, with Poland and France pressing for tougher restrictions.

Podolyak complained that the debate over whether to reimpose the barriers, which were lifted after the Kremlin’s assault on Kyiv, was unworthy of Ukraine’s allies. He noted that European countries continue to trade with Russia even as the fighting drags on.

“For me, this looks strange,” he said. “You are simultaneously financing the defence of Ukraine, which is defending itself against Russia. Your companies finance the Russian federal budget, 42 per cent of which goes directly to the war. So, you are both here and there at the same time.”

The Kremlin, he added, is preparing for a prolonged conflict and is stalling for time to make the war more expensive for Western countries and Ukraine.

“Russia is interested in a long war and in Western countries getting tired and saying, ‘That’s it, let’s look for some kind of compromise solution.’ But there’s no compromise solution in this war,” he said.

Podolyak expressed frustration at the West’s incrementalism, especially when it comes to supplying artillery shells.

Without additional supplies, Ukrainians will die in greater numbers “because there’s a lack of weapons to wage an effective defensive war,” he said. “It will be written in history how one nation, the most aggressive and bloodthirsty, came and killed because the West did not want to give additional shells.”

Podolyak said he was “still optimistic about the position of the United States” despite the political battles raging as the country gears up for a tough presidential election pitting President Joe Biden against former President Donald Trump.

He said he’s banking on U.S. lawmakers eventually understanding that backing Ukraine is essential. “Investing in Ukraine is an investment in America’s reputation, in its dominance, in its right to prescribe global rules and to make sure they’re not violated,” he said.