Ukrainian PM lauds Poland for initiating full ban on Russian oil

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has praised Poland for being the initiator of imposing the total embargo on crude oil from Russia.

Shmyhal told a Polish public broadcaster on Wednesday that Ukraine and Poland "share the views... that crude oil is a tool of the Russian hybrid war... used against the European Union countries, and not only against Ukraine."

He added that Warsaw was first to impose the embargo on Russian gas and coal imports.

"Poles have not succumbed to the blackmail of the Russian Federation when it comes to payments for gas in Russian roubles," Shmyhal said and thanked Poland for "a whole series of sanctions initiatives" coming from the Polish government.

"I would like to point out that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski were among the first to visit Kyiv during the hostilities... when there were explosions literally 20 km away," Shmyhal said.

"In fact, the Polish leaders were already in Kyiv and conducted negotiations on the support of Ukraine and our common future," he added.

Shmyhal was asked about the draft of a new good neighbours treaty between Poland and Ukraine proposed by the Polish President Andrzej Duda during his visit to Kyiv. He explained that the proposal refers primarily to the transit of goods through Poland, both to and from Ukraine.

"There is an agreement between us related to good neighbourliness and good relations, and we will expand this agreement... towards the improvement... of cross-border services, as well as procedures related to common customs control," he said.

But, Shmyhal added, the treaty is also to cover the diplomatic support of Poland's membership and Ukraine's accession to the EU.