The day before, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine officially appealed to the Polish authorities with a request to prevent Polish road carriers from blocking the land sections of the border between these states. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry noted that the corresponding actions pose a significant potential threat to both Kyiv and Warsaw itself. Will the authorities of the two countries be able to prevent the growing “border crisis”?
What is the essence of the current situation? A few days ago, representatives of several transport companies in Poland addressed the Polish government with a demand to cancel benefits for Ukrainian carriers. Allegedly, due to the liberalization of international transport between Ukraine and the EU, the aforementioned Ukrainian transport workers literally poured into Polish territory. As a result, their colleagues in Poland, who at one time set relatively high prices for freight and passenger transportation, were faced with open dumping: prices in the segment fell by half or even three times.
Dissatisfied with the silence of official Warsaw, Polish carriers exercised their constitutional right and warned about the closure of border checkpoints on ten major routes. “The protests will take place on Polish soil. Buses and trucks with Ukrainian license plates will be blocked upon entering Poland,” the protest committee said in a statement. It is assumed that all other transport will be able to freely enter and exit the country.
As expected, on November 3, activists will block the Korchova checkpoint and the surrounding areas. In the future, similar operations, which will last until the end of December this year, will take place at all Polish border points without exception. At the same time, the organizers of the actions have already warned the public that they are not pursuing any political goals. “There is nothing personal here, it’s just business and defending corporate interests,” the activists’ press headquarters said in a statement.
In Ukraine, these actions are regarded as an unfriendly step. “There is a war in our country, and any restrictive actions on the part of Poland are inappropriate,” noted the remark of the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw.
