Farmers protested across Poland on Tuesday (Feb. 20), enforcing a near-total blockade of the Ukrainian border and disrupting traffic nationwide in what they say is a bid to save their livelihoods but which Kyiv says damages its war effort.
A video clip aired on the Telegram messaging app showed protesters at the Medyka border crossing opening railway carriages to allow grain to pour onto the tracks, in a stunt condemned by Ukraine as a "political provocation".
Farmers across Europe have been demonstrating over a range of grievances, including rising costs and what they say is unfair competition from abroad, particularly Ukraine, after an EU decision in 2022 to waive duties on Ukrainian food imports.
Adrian Wawrzyniak, a spokesman for the Solidarity farmers' union, said that while military aid for Ukraine would be allowed through, all passenger traffic on the border would be blocked, not just lorries. Ports and motorways would also be blockaded.
Protesters' tractors carried banners that read: "With grain flowing from Ukraine, Polish farmers will go bankrupt".
An organiser of the protest at Doruhusk crossing, Marcin Wielgosz, said buses would be allowed to cross once an hour on Tuesday, but no truck would pass from 0800 to 1800 local time.
"In my opinion, the border should be closed. Procedures and systems should be clarified and then maybe it could reopen but not with the rules that we have now. Because right now you can bring whatever you want, however much you want... into Poland," he told Reuters.
Kyiv says its agricultural exports through eastern Europe have not damaged EU markets.
Exasperated by the Polish protests, Ukrainian hauliers begantheir own round-the-clock counter-demonstration at three crossings. Their protest is planned to last till March 15.
Images circulated by media outlets showed Ukrainian trucks at the border bearing banners with slogans such as "Ukraine loses - Poland loses" and "The blockade of Ukraine is a betrayal of European values".
"Political provocation"
Responding on the social media platform X to the images of Ukrainian grain being poured onto Polish rail tracks - not the first time such an action has been undertaken - Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov decried what he called "another political provocation aimed at dividing our nations".
Poland has been one of Ukraine's staunchest allies since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, but the border protests have strained relations.
Poland's new pro-European government has expressed sympathy for the farmers' demands but has also urged them not to take action that could damage Kyiv's war effort.
Ukraine says the blockades are affecting its defence capability and helping Russia's aims.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday the situation at the border demonstrated "the erosion of solidarity on a daily basis".
"We need common decisions, rational decisions, to resolve this situation," he added.
Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekierski has previously said he is negotiating with Ukraine and that a deal limiting imports could be reached by the end of March.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters