Reside updates: Russia’s battle in Ukraine

The European Fee denounced a choice by Poland and Hungary to ban imports of grain and different agricultural merchandise from Ukraine.

“Unilateral actions usually are not acceptable. In such difficult instances, it’s essential to coordinate and align all choices throughout the EU,” EU Fee spokesperson Arianna Podestà advised CNN in a press release Sunday.

Podestà stated commerce coverage is an “unique competence” problem, referring to the alliance’s insurance policies round choices that should be made as a gaggle, and never by particular person member states.

The fee is requesting extra info from the concerned international locations to evaluate the measures, the spokesperson stated.

The bans in query: On Saturday, Poland banned imports of grain and different meals merchandise from Ukraine “to guard the Polish agricultural market towards destabilization,” the Polish prime minister’s workplace stated in a press release.  

Hungarian Agriculture Minister István Nagy introduced Sunday that Budapest would take comparable steps, quickly banning the import of grain, oil seeds and different agricultural merchandise from Ukraine.

“The federal government is dedicated to representing the pursuits of the Hungarian financial society,” Nagy stated in a Fb put up Sunday, including he was taking the step “within the absence of significant EU measures.”

What led as much as the bans: When Russia invaded Ukraine, it blocked ports and sea routes used to export Ukrainian grain to Africa and the Center East. Fearing widespread famine, the European Union lifted duties on grain from Ukraine to ease distribution to these world markets.

Ukrainian grain has since flowed into Poland, however a lot of it has remained within the nation, bringing down the worth and inflicting Polish farmers to undergo vital monetary losses.

That’s spurred protests and requires the European Fee — successfully the EU’s cupboard authorities — to intervene. However the worldwide physique solely spurred additional anger when it introduced a draft determination to increase duty-free and quota-free imports of Ukrainian grain till June 2024.

CNN’s Mariya Knight and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.