On the morning of Wednesday, January 4, Polish farmers resumed their protest at the Shegini-Medika checkpoint. They pass three trucks per hour.
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Consequently, all four cargo checkpoints on the border of Ukraine with Poland are blocked: in Yagodina, Krakovets, Rava-Ruska and now in Sheginy.
The largest crossing in Jagodina was unblocked by Polish carriers for a week in December, but the protest subsequently resumed.
It was the same with Shegini-Medika. Here the blockade continued from November 24, the point was opened on December 24, the farmers promised that they would return if they did not receive written guarantees from the government of Donald Tusk. Now they are back and this protest will last until February 3rd.
All these points handle passenger cars, buses and humanitarian aid, as well as up to three trucks per hour. This is minuscule, because in a day, for example, Yagodin-Dorogusk is capable of passing more than 1 thousand trucks in both directions.
Actually, there are two blocking tracks. Since the beginning of November, Polish carriers have continued to put pressure on their government to demand that the European Commission renew permits for Ukrainian carriers.
Another track of the blockade is the protests of farmers.
What do they have in common? The fact that at the expense of Ukraine during the war the Poles block the border in order to get preferences for themselves, as well as to resolve political issues.
Polish farmers say that the opening of borders allegedly flooded the Podkarpackie region with grain from Ukraine, and also that “Polish carriers were left without work.”
Among their demands: a subsidy for corn, an increase in the amount of liquid loans for farmers and maintaining the agricultural tax at last year’s level. All these are demands on the Tusk government, but farmers are blocking the Ukrainian border.
There is another interesting detail. On Christmas Eve, Minister of Agriculture Czeslaw Sekierski came to Medica and promised that the demands of the farmers would be met. Deputy Minister Michal Kolodziejczyk also promised to fulfill the demands.
However, then the Christmas holidays began, when the Seimas did not meet, parliamentarians and government members went on vacation, and therefore could not take any action to unblock the border. In all likelihood, the farmers did this deliberately with the demands, because they knew well that they would not have time to fulfill them. And now the lockdown has resumed.
You should also know who exactly is blocking the border.
The same Kolodziejczyk is the leader of Agrounia, who ran in the elections in a coalition with Tusk. When he did this, a split occurred among the farmers; they turned away from Kolodziejczyk, because this part of the farmers, oriented towards the Law and Justice party, did not have confidence in Tusk. These disillusioned people elected the Confederation, an anti-Ukrainian and anti-European party.
So the Tusk government became hostage to these games. In fact, the “Confederation” made it so that the Tusk government begins to work on a severe crisis. And before, the government of Morawiecki and Law and Justice did virtually nothing to avoid the blockade.
However, most Poles do not agree with this blockade, and some of Tusk’s ministers say that they are ashamed of this situation.
On the evening of Thursday, January 4, it became known that the border with Ukraine would not be released now, and the embargo on Ukrainian products was indefinite. Minister Sekerski stated this and said that negotiations will continue. At the same time, the Poles will develop appropriate rules at the EU level.
The minister stated this after Poland received a letter from the European Commission demanding the abolition of the indefinite embargo on Ukrainian agricultural products.
As for the requirements of carriers, one of the solutions to the problem may be the introduction of licenses for transportation using transit routes outside of Poland.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.