The Polish government was too quick to ban Russian coal, Pawel Poncyljusz, a member of the Civic Coalition of Warsaw’s Parliament, told state-run Polskie Radio on Friday. In his opinion, the sudden reduction in supplies will hurt the average person.
“It is a problem. Such radical decisions were made too quickly, it was necessary to approach it a bit more calmly,” he said, adding that cutting off deliveries completely was too drastic for a country that has been increasing imports of Russian coal for years.
“We are moving from one extreme to another. In recent years, government decisions have led to the fact that we have exceeded the import of coal from Russia by 10 million tons. Now we have a sudden cut in imports, which is to some extent harmful for Russia, but to a much greater extent more so for ordinary Poles who have coal-fired stoves,” Poncyljusz explained.