For the past year and a half, Poland has been one of Ukraine's biggest, most important allies. They have sent fighter jets, tanks, and ammunition of every kind to their besieged neighbor. Despite this, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided to pressure Poland and other allies to buy massive amounts of cheap Ukrainian grain. This poses a serious problem for eastern Eurpoean countries like Poland with thousands of small farmers; who don't live extravagant lives and live year to year on every harvest. An influx of Ukrainian grain that would have gone to Africa and the Middle East if not for the Russian blockade in the Black Sea would artificially lower (or crater) prices. Lower prices at harvest would devastate farmers in these countries; which would cause many farms to fall into debt or go under completely. While in the short term, the sale of cheap grain would ease the sting felt on Ukraine's farming industry caused by the blockade; in the long term, the loss of farms and the massive amount of debt endured by those that survive the war in Ukraine would not just hurt the economy, but amount to a real national security crisis. A nation that cannot feed itself cannot remain free.

So Poland, like some other NATO members, decided to block the grain imports to protect struggling farms in their countries.

However, this has infuriated Zelenskyy. Up to this point, Zelenskyy has been able to shape foreign policy by publicly criticizing or threatening to publicly criticize foreign leaders for not giving what he says Ukraine needs to defend itself. No longer. Poland and others in Eastern Europe are not budging to this pressure.

Then things got really bad

Once Zelenskyy began verbally assaulting Poland with his rhetoric, even going so far as to accuse Poland of "political showmanship" and "helping Moscow" during his address to the United Nations, Poland made the shocking decision to stop sending arms and munitions to Ukraine aside from what's already been promised.

Poland is Justified

Poland again isn't wrong. Poland has given a massive amount of weapons to Ukraine over the past year and a half while Russia has been slowly sneaking agents into Poland with the long term goal of destabilizing the country and potentially begin a war with the country once the war in Ukraine is done. Poland can't afford to give everything to Ukraine.

Moving forward, Poland absolutely needs to rebuild its arsenal. In the long run, dumping it's old, Soviet-era and last gen tanks and fighters in Ukraine, Poland has the opportunity now to buy newer weapon systems from the United States, likely at an extreme discount because they only have the need because they were supporting an ally of the United States.

It's still in Poland's best interest to help the Ukrainian war effort, and they know it. Every Ruble, every bullet, every Russian soldier's life spent in Ukraine is one that cannot be spent in Poland. However, Poland, and every country in the world, needs to consider their own national security before giving everything to someone else.