Ukraine's economy loses about $500mln due to border blockade by Polish farmers

This was announced by Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Vasyl Zvarych.

He called on Polish farmers to end the border blockade and not to succumb to propaganda.

"Due to the ongoing blockade of the border, Ukraine has already been seriously weakened, the Ukrainian economy has already lost about 2 billion zlotys as a result of the blockade. In the context of Russian aggression, this is a serious blow to the defence of my country, and therefore also a blow to the security of Poland," Zvarych wrote.

He stressed that Poland's economy is also losing money because of the border blockade. It hinders trade between Ukraine, which last year amounted to €13 billion. According to the ambassador, this is more than twice the volume of Ukrainian exports to Poland.

"The truth is that it is not Ukraine or its agricultural products that are the source of your problems. Ukraine has no influence on global food prices. Prices are determined on global exchanges, where Russia is an active player. It is Russia that pursues a dumping policy and uses the food market as a hybrid weapon for the purposes of aggression against Ukraine. It is Russia that is consistently trying to destabilise the global and European markets, weaken the economies of both Ukraine and European countries, and create anti-Ukrainian sentiment to undermine European solidarity with Ukraine," Zvarych said.

The Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland stressed that the blockade of the border benefits only Russia, which is now earning money by increasing its exports of agricultural and food products to the EU market.

"I believe in your wisdom, understanding and good will to end the blockade of the border with Ukraine as soon as possible," the diplomat added.

• On March 4, it became known that Ukraine had lost about UAH 8 billion in customs duties, and businesses had lost more than €1.5 billion due to the blockade of the border by Polish protesters.