"Polish long-distance drivers are blocking several border crossings into Ukraine. The queues are sometimes up to 40 kilometers long. Now Warsaw and Kiev are looking for a solution.
At the border between Poland and Ukraine, representatives of both governments have started talks to end the blockade of border crossings by Polish long-distance drivers. The transport ministries of both countries announced this on Monday.
The meeting was overshadowed by the death of a long-distance truck driver at the weekend. The Ukrainian had been standing in the queue of vehicles at Chelm, about 20 kilometers from the crossing. Kiev's Infrastructure State Secretary Serhij Derkach wrote that he probably died of natural causes.
The official called on people to prevent the situation surrounding the border blockade from escalating. According to him, only 27 vehicles were able to cross the border into Poland at the border town of Dorohusk on Friday due to the blockade, while hundreds had to wait.
Kiev calls Polish blockade "absolutely illegal"
Polish long-distance drivers began blocking the crossings near the border towns of Dorohusk, Korczowa and Hrebenne a week ago. They are calling for commercial transport by Ukrainian drivers to be subject to licensing again. The EU suspended the permit system for Ukrainian drivers after 2022.
The previous rule was that Poles and Ukrainians were each allowed to make 160,000 trips across the border; In the first half of 2023 alone, 642,000 trips have already been made, apparently more than 90 percent by Ukrainians. "Poland's farmers are afraid of cheap grain, and we are afraid of Ukrainian transporters, their trucks are flooding us," said one of the protesters. Due to the extensive blockage of the Black Sea as a transport route and the suspension of air traffic, land connections as Ukraine's export corridor are currently overloaded.
Derkatsch said that the volume of trucks at the border is currently about twice as high as before 2022, with up to 50,000 vehicles per month. The Polish blockade, which organizers announced as "long-term," is "absolutely illegal." It also blocks the “corridors of solidarity” that the EU had announced for grain exports. Poland's long-distance drivers already have the largest percentage share of truck transport within the EU and want privileges in order to maintain their market share." [1]
1. Die Wut der polnischen Fernfahrer über die Ukraine. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (online) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. Nov 13, 2023. Von Gerhard Gnauck, Warschau
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