Kyiv hopes to hold talks with Poland and the European Commission this week, as thousands of trucks queue at the border due to Polish blocks, in a protest that may affect country's energy security, a Ukrainian trade representative said on Monday.
Trucks are backed up for miles as Polish truckers blocked roads to three border crossings in a protest, now in its second week, into what they see as government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors.
Truckers from Ukraine have been exempt from seeking permits to cross the Polish border since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and firms from Russia and Belarus have been setting up Polish entities, Polish truckers have said.
They want a return to a limited number of licenses for Ukrainian truckers, a demand Kyiv said it would not consider.
"This week we hope to have negotiations in a trilateral format," Taras Kachka, the representative, said in televised comments on Monday.
He said the blockages may affect critical supplies of energy resources for Ukraine, which is suffering from constant Russian attacks.
LNG is most heavily affected by the situation, with gasoline and diesel to a lesser extent, Kachka said, adding that crucial imports from the Baltic were also being affected, not just imports from Poland.
He called it a "before crisis situation".
Ukraine and Poland held talks on the blockages last week but both sides reported no progress. On Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said that about 3,000, mostly Ukrainian trucks, including those carrying fuel and humanitarian aid, were stuck on the Polish side of the border.
"If they keep on working at the same pace as now, a truck that arrives today will cross the border and get home at about Christmas," Ukrainian trucker Victor Zarudnyi told Reuters.
Drivers also complained about the harsh weather, with the first days of snow and frost in Poland last week.
Kachka reiterated that it was not possible to take away licenses, but said Kyiv was ready to discuss additional rules to improve the work of both Ukrainian and Polish truckers.
A representative of the Committee for Protection of Polish Truckers, Jacek Sokol, said drivers from both sides should meet to talk and try to work out an agreement together.
"All you need is a will, a will to come, listen and understand problems and agree something with the other side."
According to the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry, an average of 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.
Now only a few vehicles per hour are going through the Polish border at blocked checkpoints, Ukrainian border guards say.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters