Six days after waiting in freezing temperatures to cross the border between Poland and Ukraine, Ivan Lazaryskyn is calculating how much diesel he has left to run the engine and heat his truck.
Like thousands of other mostly Ukrainian truckers, Lazaryskyn is stuck at the frontier on his way home because Polish drivers have been blockading key crossings for the past month in a protest against cheap competition from Ukraine-based hauliers.
Arms shipments and essential goods are allowed through, but the blockade is hurting Kyiv’s trade at a time when its economy is struggling to show resilience in the face of Russian aggression.
The border protest, described by Ukraine’s ambassador to Warsaw as a stab in the back by Poland, is particularly hurtful as it comes from a neighbouring country that has been one of Kyiv’s most steadfast supporters during the war.
On Monday, Petro Darichuk was among the Ukrainian drivers using the return of sunshine to shovel snow that accumulated on the roof of his truck during a stormy weekend. Darichuk said the blockade showed relations could change “much too quickly” between neighbours.
“We used to need permits which were never easy to get, then last year we suddenly got welcomed, and now we’re back to something disastrous that I don’t remember in 15 years of driving to Europe,” Darichuk said.
“It’s as if people forgot our war and think again only about making more money.”
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland became the main route for people fleeing the conflict, as well as for goods and weapons being shuttled into the country. As its airspace shut down, Ukraine’s exports by road to the EU rose almost a third last year, according to research by Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital.
The Polish truckers’ protest, which has merged with farmers’ complaints about cheap imports of Ukrainian grain, comes at a time when Kyiv is struggling to secure further US and EU aid — and is a further sign of how the mood among allies has shifted since the early days of the war.
Last year, Medyka was one of the main gateways for refugees fleeing Ukraine. Now the solidarity is limited to some local residents who bring hot soup and bread to the trapped drivers. Portable toilets have also been installed near their trucks.
Ukrainian officials warn of a possible humanitarian crisis following reports that two drivers recently died while waiting to cross the border, as temperatures dropped below zero.
Although one lane was opened on Monday at the Dołhobyczów crossing to allow empty trucks to leave Ukraine, Polish drivers plan to continue blocking four other crossings. Slovakian drivers have also recently held protests at their border with Ukraine.
The EU is threatening legal action against Poland, with transport commissioner Adina Vălean criticising the “dramatic” situation at the border. “We cannot ignore the incredible hardship drivers are going through, drivers on which our economies depend,” she said. Vălean spoke after a meeting of EU transport ministers on Monday that failed to resolve the dispute.
The caretaker administration of Poland’s rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party has avoided confronting a national transport sector that operates the EU’s largest truck fleet.
Ukraine’s association of truckers recently warned it had already lost €400mn in revenue because of the blockade, with exports of wood products, car parts and vegetable oils particularly affected.
The trucking dispute during a delayed government transition in Warsaw could become a political headache for Poland’s Donald Tusk, who is expected to take office next week after winning elections in October as leader of a pro-European coalition.
Meanwhile, far-right politicians have visited the border to back Polish drivers and stoke anti-Ukraine feelings before local elections in April. Tusk’s coalition has criticised PiS for allowing the blockade, but has stopped short of promising to break it up.
Backed by the PiS government, Polish drivers want the EU to reintroduce quotas for Ukrainian trucks that were lifted last year to help Kyiv’s war effort. The drivers’ demands echo those of Polish farmers who complained about a grain glut caused by the opening of the EU market to cheaper Ukrainian cereals. The PiS government introduced a unilateral ban on Ukrainian grain — in violation of the EU’s common trade policy.
The two disputes have converged at the Medyka crossing. Drivers and farmers take turns to keep the picket line while grilling sausages and cooking cabbage.
“Drivers and farmers must fight together against unfair competition from Ukrainians who don’t follow any EU laws, food standards and work rules,” said Polish grain farmer Maciej Pelc. Farmers, he said, could afford to hold more protests this winter while their fields stay frozen.
Polish police have struck an agreement with demonstrators to keep the road clear for private vehicles, buses and transports of military and humanitarian aid, including from the nearby airport of Rzeszów.
Other truck drivers must park by the roadside as far as 25 kilometres before the border, and protesters allow only five trucks an hour to cross, including military ones that get priority.
Lazaryskyn, who transports furniture, refrained from blaming Warsaw or Brussels for the protest and said he suspected Moscow had something to do with it. “This protest is totally unjustified, which is why I actually think it must be financed by Russia.”
Source link
