On October 2, another “bomb” exploded in the media space, with the news that Ukraine had allegedly not invited Polish arms manufacturers to the Defense Industries Forum held in Kyiv last week. This statement was made by the Minister of State Assets of Poland Jacek Sasin on the air Radio ZET.
Against the backdrop of all the recent problems in Polish-Ukrainian relations, which have been heated up both by the approaching elections in our neighbors and by Russia’s apparent “help,” such statements are extremely dangerous. Moreover, they were extremely categorical:
PGZ (Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa) was not invited as a company;
Jacek Sasin said on the air of the radio station
The news also quotes him as saying that “recently we have been dealing with a number of unfriendly gestures from Ukraine.”
I’m afraid that we are talking about the current political interest of the Ukrainian government, which believes that when there is a campaign in Poland, it is better to side with Germany and play the role of someone who shows that they are not playing for this government – which is a defender of Ukraine, has done so much for Ukrainians – but rather play for a change of government in Poland.
The minister made a very serious statement.
🎥 @SasinJacek o Ukrainie: Uważają, że lepiej zagrać na zmianę władzy w Polsce. Odbije im się to czkawką@RadioZET_NEWS #GośćRadiaZET #Rymanowski
Cała rozmowa tu ⬇️https://t.co/GOEA0LtGQn pic.twitter.com/pqKeZ6QfA3
— Gość Radia ZET (@Gosc_RadiaZET) October 2, 2023However, this information has been consistently denied both in Ukraine and in Poland itself.
This is a question for the Polish side, because Poland was one of the first to receive an invitation to the event. This is a sovereign decision of each country. We send an invitation, and the country decides whether to accept it or not based on its interests. So we respect such decisions, but this is not a reason to blame Ukraine for the fact that Poland was not present.
said Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Vasyl Zvarych in an interview with TVN24.
The Polish minister’s statement was further refuted by Beata Perkowska, a spokeswoman for the Polish Arms Group (PGZ), who noted that despite the absence of the concern’s representatives at the forum in Kyiv, cooperation between the parties is developing very actively.
Yes, of course. We received the following letter (with an invitation to the defense industry forum in Kyiv)
said Perkovskaya.
On the evening of October 2, Minister Jacek Sasin himself publicly apologized, noting that PGZ had been invited to the forum in Kyiv, but he had not known about it at the time of the radio broadcast.
W związku z moją dzisiejszą wypowiedzią w @RadioZET_NEWS przepraszam za powstałe nieporozumienie. https://t.co/XhiJBmjO5q pic.twitter.com/X4aRLVf2NN
— Jacek Sasin (@SasinJacek) October 2, 2023So what does Radio ZET have to do with it if the statements were made by the minister? The fact is that this particular radio was the original source of the version that a Russian missile fired by Russia fell on the territory of Poland on November 15, 2022. This extraordinary version of the tragic event, unfortunately, was quickly spread and led to another problem in Polish-Ukrainian relations.
We cannot say that in both cases there was malicious intent on the part of the journalists of this media outlet, but we believe that the information from them should be checked more carefully.
