Polish truck drivers have announced that they will block three border crossings with Ukraine on Monday, in an effort to attract attention to the harm done to them by the decision by the EU to relax the regulations of the bloc on Ukrainian transport companies in 2022.
According to the announcement, which was reported upon by Reuters, the protest will begin at 12:00pm local time on November 6, and it will see trucks traveling through Dorohusk, Hrebenne-Rawa Ruska, and Korczowa, stopped, with only one truck per hour allowed through.
The notification noted that equipment for Ukraine’s army, and any vehicles transporting livestock would be allowed through by the Polish protestors, however.
The protestor’s demands include the reimposition of the EU’s restrictions on the numbers of trucks registered in Ukraine which are allowed to enter Poland, as well as a ban on any transport companies with capital from outside the European Union.
The protest is the latest in Poland against the lifting of restrictions on Ukrainian companies by Brussels in an effort to boost the Ukrainian economy as it is mired in a military conflict with Russia. Earlier in the year Polish farmers launched a protest over the influx of cheap Ukrainian grain, which lowered the price of the commodity to the point it threatened to run Polish farmers out of business. Throughout Poland, a broad swath of businesses have reportedly been deeply concerned about the effects on their own economy of the measures being put into effect to support Ukraine.
However Kiev’s Deputy Infrastructure Minister, Sergey Derkach said the Polish truckers were just blockading the road to stop Ukrainian competitors from entering Poland. He noted that his nation’s transportation trucks account for 85% of the transport vehicles crossing the border.
According to data from the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry, every month roughly 40,000 to 50,000 trucks, on average, cross the border between Ukraine and Poland through eight different crossings. The ministry estimates this current traffic level is approximately twice as many as made the crossing prior to the onset of the military conflict with Russia.
