Polish farmers shut down country’s border with Ukraine — RT World News
Border guards in Kiev said that “not a single truck” was able to cross the blockade
Protesting Polish farmers closed all six border crossings into Ukraine on Sunday, according to Kiev's border security agency. The move comes after months of protests by agricultural workers in Poland against cheap Ukrainian imports that threaten their livelihoods.
“As of this morning, there are more than 2,400 freight vehicles waiting in line.” At all six crossing points, Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the state border guard service, told Ukrainian news site European Pravda.
“Not a single truck crosses the border towards Poland, because they are not allowed to cross.” Demchenko said, adding that cars, trucks and buses are allowed to pass as usual.
Polish farmers have been closing the border since November in protest against an EU rule that allows Ukrainian farmers to sell their grain in the bloc without paying customs duties or adhering to strict Brussels regulations. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier this week that Warsaw was in talks with Kiev about temporarily closing the border, although the Ukrainian side denied his claim.
Polish authorities He added: “We want to help Ukraine, but we cannot allow this assistance to lead to extremely negative effects on our citizens. We are constantly looking for a solution that will protect the Polish market from being flooded with obviously cheaper products.” [Ukrainian] agricultural products, Tusk said on Wednesday.
Farmers also staged a protest on the Lithuanian-Polish border, claiming that Ukrainian truck drivers are using the Baltic state to circumvent their blockade of the border with Ukraine.
In addition to raising tariffs on Ukrainian products, the EU in 2022 abolished a rule requiring transport companies in the war-torn country to obtain permits to enter the bloc. While the move was aimed at injecting some much-needed revenue into Ukraine's transportation industry, Polish officials said claimed It allowed Ukrainian truck drivers to undermine their local counterparts.
The situation was further exacerbated by Kiev's imposition of a queuing system that made Polish trucks wait up to two weeks to return from their trips to Ukraine, while Ukrainian trucks were free to cross the border whenever they wanted.
Although Polish officials have repeatedly and publicly warned of the threat posed by cheap imports, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba claimed Last week the protesting farmers were only doing so because of the influence of A “Russian disinformation campaign.”
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