Border blockade has become tougher: Poles completely blocked an important checkpoint for trucks

On March 1, Polish protesters completely blocked truck traffic through the Medyka-Shehyni checkpoint on the border with Ukraine. Vehicles cannot travel from Ukraine to Poland or vice versa. A total of 2, 350 trucks are queuing at the six checkpoints where the strike continues on the Polish side.

This was reported by the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS), Andrii Demchenko, during a telethon. Earlier, the protesters allowed at least several trucks per hour and assured that they would not interfere with the movement of military aid, humanitarian aid, and perishable food.

"As the Polish side informed us, at 1 p.m. Polish farmers refused to let any trucks heading either toward Ukraine or Poland through," said Demchenko.

Prior to that, the checkpoint was already experiencing a critical minimum of truck crossings. Thus, according to Demchenko, only 47 trucks crossed the border in both directions over the past day.

Now the situation has worsened. "After 13:00 and now, the Ukrainian side has been recording directly at our checkpoint that trucks are not moving either from Poland or to Poland. The Polish side does not accept trucks from Ukraine," said Demchenko.

There has also been a significant decrease in the number of border crossings by trucks in the direction of the Yahodyn checkpoint. "Over the past day, 111 trucks heading from Poland to Ukraine crossed the border here. As before, Polish farmers are not letting any trucks traveling from Ukraine to Poland through. In recent days, there have been zero border crossings towards Poland in this direction," Demchenko added.

Farmers at the border are demanding a ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine to Poland. However, in reality, key products cannot enter the market of this country anyway, they only transit through its territory. We are talking about wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower, which are the products that Polish farmers regularly destroy at the border.

At the same time, Poles are actively trading grain with Belarus and Russia. Last year alone, Poland paid Belarusians $55 million for agricultural products. Among other things, the Poles buy rapeseed meal (residues of rapeseed processing) and are not ashamed to buy products of Russian origin from Belarus.

As a reminder, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the Polish authorities are ready to completely close the border with Ukraine and are negotiating with the Ukrainian side. At the same time, representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine denied that such an issue had ever been raised.

"It is very painful to stop the trade even for a day, which in annual terms amounts to $11.7 billion (and according to Polish statistics, even more). Not to mention the transit, which is vital for Ukraine," explained Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, Polish protests are not limited to the border of Ukraine. Farmers are also going to block the border with Lithuania because Ukrainian grain is allegedly coming from that country. At the same time, Polish businessmen earn more from trade with Lithuania than Lithuanian businessmen (Poles also earn more from trade with Ukraine than Ukrainians).

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