GALATI COUNTY, Romania — After more than a year of surprisingly solid European unity in support of Ukraine, grains of discord are piling up in the barn of Robert Vieru, a Romanian farmer with 500 tons of wheat and 250 tons of sunflower seeds now sitting unsold because of cut-price Ukrainian competition.
A glut of Ukrainian cereals and other produce has nearly halved the value for the results of Vieru’s labors and left farmers across Eastern and central Europe — and their governments, most of which face elections this year or next — caught between solidarity with Ukraine and their own survival.