Ukraine calls on EU to pressure Poland to end border blockade

Ukraine has urged the European Commission to pressure Poland to end a blockade on joint border crossings that Kyiv says are holding up humanitarian aid deliveries.

Truck tailbacks are stretching up to 50km at some checkpoints, and two Ukrainian drivers have reportedly died, since Polish farmers and hauliers began their protests in early November.

Farmers are demanding the Polish government pay wheat subsidies and offer state-backed loans to compensate them for an influx of Ukrainian grain that has squeezed prices.

Allowing only a handful of Ukrainian trucks through each hour has seen the longest backlog stretch to 750 trucks at Poland’s Dorohusk checkpoint. The waiting time is about 230 hours – nearly 10 days. In total, Ukraine says about 3,000 trucks are blocked at various crossings.

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Meanwhile, Polish hauliers say a change in EU rules, to lift entry limits in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has also created imbalances in their sector.

Ukrainian companies can make an unlimited number of runs through Poland and undercut Polish firms with higher costs and prices, complain Polish firms, in part because of not having to adhere to EU rules.

“We are all unanimously in favour of [Ukraine] aid, but we have to separate business from war,” said Marek Okrynski, a Polish transport company owner, to TVN television.

Ukrainian road hauliers say they are being held “hostage” in a dispute over which they have little control. Hundreds are effectively trapped at border crossings in plunging temperatures with limited access to toilets, showers, water and hot meals.

At the weekend, Ukraine’s road haulier association said a second driver had died at a border checkpoint, without revealing the cause of death.

“They are forced to live in cabins and it is unclear when they can come into Ukraine,” said Volodymyr Balin, vice-president of Ukraine’s road haulier association.

In the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, 90km from the Polish border, mayor Andriy Sadovyi described the blockade as “disgraceful” and at “too high a cost”, given consistently sub-zero temperatures.

Mr Sadovyi said the blockade was hindering the delivery of humanitarian supplies to Ukraine as the country was “defending its independence and the security of Europe”.

Last week borders to Slovakia were temporarily blocked and then lifted.

European hauliers who are rerouting their vehicles to avoid Poland have reported huge queues forming at crossings to Hungary.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was confident the border blockade would be resolved, telling an international grain conference that Poland should be given “some time” to address the issue.