Poland intends to start phasing out imports of Russian energy sources within a few weeks and complete this by the end of the current year.

This should affect coal, natural gas and oil.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that his country was presenting "the most radical plan in Europe".

By May at the latest, “we will issue a total embargo on Russian coal.

We call on all other countries to do the same.” The draft law also includes coal originating from the so-called “People's Republics” in eastern Ukraine;

it had been relabelled for years and sold as Russian coal in EU countries, including Germany.

In Poland, Russian imported coal recently covered around 15 percent of coal requirements.

About 70 percent of the country's electricity comes from coal-fired power generation.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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"We are aware that this may raise legal concerns, unfortunately legitimate concerns, but we can no longer wait for an EU response on this issue," said a government spokesman.

"Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary" would have prevented such a regulation.

Prime Minister Morawiecki proposed a special EU tax on Russian energy sources.

There should be no return to “those criminal, bad policies that created dependency on Russia and gave Putin euros and dollars with which to expand their nuclear arsenal and attack neighboring countries”.

Poland recently covered about 67 percent of its oil needs from Russia.

The head of the state-affiliated oil company PKN Orlen, Daniel Obajtek, said on Wednesday that 28 tanker shipments of oil had been ordered since the beginning of the Russian war "which completely cover our system".

According to media reports, deliveries from Saudi Arabia, among others, have been agreed.

The final farewell to Russian natural gas had already been announced when the multi-year supply contract expired at the end of the year.

In the course of action against Russian influence in the Polish economy, Warsaw also wants to freeze the assets of oligarchs.

Overall, however, Russian direct investments in Poland are small.

By the end of 2020, they comprised the equivalent of around 240 million euros.

The largest Russian project, the attempt by the oligarch Moshe Kantor to take over a chemical plant in 2012, was prevented by the then liberal government in Warsaw.

Russia ranked seventh among Poland's trading partners in 2021.

Meanwhile, the Russian authorities have blocked the accounts of the Polish embassy in Moscow.

Sooner or later, employees could have trouble paying their gas and electricity bills.

The action could be a reaction to a previous blocking of accounts by the Russian embassy in Warsaw.