Polish truckers start round-the-clock blockade of fourth Ukrainian border crossing

FILE PHOTO:Ukrainian trucks are parked near the Poland-Ukraine border, near the village of Korczowa, Poland November 19, 2023. REUTERS/Yan Dobronosov/File Photo

WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish truckers and farmers started a round-the-clock blockade of access on Monday to Medyka, one of the busiest border crossings with Ukraine, extending a protest that has left thousand of lorries stranded for days in queues that stretch for miles.

The truckers say they are losing out to Ukrainian companies which offer cheaper prices for their services and which are now transporting goods within the European Union, rather than just between the bloc and Ukraine.

“I would like to end this protest as soon as possible, because it is as burdensome for us as for everyone around us,” said Tomasz Borkowski, leader of the Committee to Protect Transporters and Transport Employers, a Polish union.

“We have no intention of giving up and we will stand until we get our terms.”

Polish truckers have already been blocking access to three other border crossings since Nov. 6, demanding that the European Union reintroduce a permit system for Ukrainian truckers entering the bloc and for EU truckers entering Ukraine, with exemptions for humanitarian aid and military supplies.

FILE PHOTO: Polish truckers burn wood to keep warm as they block crossings at Ukrainian border near the village of Hrebenne, Poland November 19, 2023. REUTERS/Yan Dobronosov/File Photo

The system was lifted after Russia invaded the country in 2022.

The truckers also want empty trucks from the European Union to be excluded from an electronic queuing system in Ukraine and measures to stop Belarusian and Russian hauliers setting up companies in Poland to get around sanctions.

The current waiting time for trucks to cross at Medyka, one of eight road border crossings with Ukraine, is 127 hours according to data from the Polish border guard.

In Medyka truckers are joining a protest organised by farmers who are demanding that government support to help them deal with low grain prices be continued.

Two trucks per hour are being let through at Medyka, the protesters say, with exemptions for humanitarian aid and war supplies.

Ukraine says the protest is damaging its fragile war-time economy by hampering exports and stopping supplies of essentials like motor vehicle gas (LPG) from entering the country.

With Ukraine’s Black Sea ports – a key export route before the war – virtually blocked by Russia, Ukrainian businesses rely on roads and railways to reroute exports and imports.

Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry estimated that an average 40,000-50,000 trucks cross the border with Poland per month via eight existing crossings, twice as many as before the war. Most of the goods are carried by Ukraine’s transport fleet.

(Reporting by Karol Badohal, writing by Alan Charlish, editing by Susan Fenton)