Polish border protest: trucks wait up to 90 hours to enter Ukraine

The Polish publication Wnp.pl writes about this with reference to the Tax Administration Department in Lublin, Espreso reports.

In particular, as noted, 650 trucks are waiting in a 30-hour queue to leave Poland and enter Ukraine in front of the Dorohusk-Yahodyn checkpoint. At the same time, about 900 trucks are waiting in a nearly 90-hour queue near the Hrebenne-Rava Ruska checkpoint on the Polish side of the border.

Earlier, Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine Serhiy Derkach said in an interview with Ukrinform that the flow of trucks has decreased by several times due to the border blockade in Poland.

"Depending on the checkpoint, these days there are two to three times fewer trucks than usual. For example, on November 6, when the strike began at about 1:30 p.m., 261 trucks passed through Rava-Ruska-Hrebenne, 252 through Yahodyn-Dorohusk, and 176 through Krakivets-Korczowa. On November 7, from 12 a.m. to 4 p.m., 265 trucks passed through Krakivets-Korczowa, 203 through Rava-Ruska-Hrebenne, and 33 through Yahodyn-Dorohusk," the deputy minister said.

On the eve of the strike, on November 5, a total of 936 trucks crossed through these three checkpoints.

According to Derkach, for each day of the checkpoint blockade, Ukraine "loses" about 1,000 trucks.

"Until November 6, for example, the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint averaged 1,430 vehicles in both directions per day. Rava-Ruska and Krakivets passed 200-300 vehicles each. In total, we lose about 800-1000 vehicles a day that could be traveling between Ukraine and Europe," he emphasized.

At the same time, Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, suggests that the situation on the border with Poland will only get more complicated. "We, of course, hope that they will stop such actions as soon as possible," Demchenko said on the United News telethon.

Strikes on the Polish-Ukrainian border: what is known

Polish carriers were reportedly set to go on strike at the border. The reason is excessive competition after the liberalization of international transport between Ukraine and the EU.

In this regard, the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine initiated a meeting with Poland and the European Commission. The State Border Guard Service has also commented on the possible blocking of the border.

On November 6, Polish carriers went on strike at the Polish-Ukrainian border. The Ministry of Infrastructure said that the Polish carriers had not submitted any official demands to Kyiv.

As of the evening of November 7, Polish carriers completely blocked the passage of trucks at two checkpoints on the border with Ukraine.