WARSAW — Polish truckers are set to resume blocking the most important border crossing with Ukraine on Monday afternoon after a court overruled a decision by local authorities last week ordering the protesters to disband — creating an early test for Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s new government.
The resumed protest is set for the Dorohusk-Jagodzin crossing; blockades at three other crossings have been ongoing since early November.
“There’s a new blockade starting at Dorohusk and farmers are joining us,” tweeted Rafał Mekler, one of the protest leaders and a far-right politician.
Polish haulers demand that last year’s EU-Ukraine agreement liberalizing rules on moving goods by trucks — aimed at helping Ukraine’s economy and Kyiv’s war effort against Russia — be scrapped and the old permit system restored. Ukrainian border crossings with Hungary and Slovakia are also being blocked by local hauliers for the same reasons. Polish farmers are joining in to ensure that cheap Ukrainian grain is kept out of Polish markets.
Both positions violate EU policy, but the European Commission has been unable to get Warsaw to move decisively to end the protests. Kyiv has also been complaining that the blockades are harming its economy and its ability to continue waging war against Russia.
The Dorohusk-Jagodzin checkpoint is the busiest on the Ukrainian-Polish border, with some 40 percent of the overall freight traffic between the two countries passing through it. The blockade has created an 80-kilometer-long line of trucks waiting to cross into Ukraine, local media report.
The local Polish court also approved a request from strikers to continue the protest until March 8. Mekler told POLITICO that strikes at the other crossings could also be extended to March.
Polish truckers accuse Ukrainian hauliers of undercutting their businesses on pricing. They also complain that Ukrainians are transporting goods between points within Poland as well as carrying cargo between Poland and third countries — known as cabotage. Those activities are not permitted under the transport deal with the EU.
Tusk spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone last week but they didn’t manage to end the standoff.
“I am confident that, with the new government in Poland, we will expedite the resolution of all outstanding issues in our relations in a mutually beneficial manner,” Zelenskyy said on X.
Poland’s new Infrastructure Minister Arkadiusz Klimczak said last week that “solving the problem requires action on several levels. I start by talking to entrepreneurs who feel disadvantaged and neglected. This is the first step in a series.”
Polish and Ukrainian ministers are meeting Wednesday for a new round of talks on resolving the crisis, the Rzeczpospolita newspaper reported Monday.
Reopening the border will require a strong effort by the Tusk government, as the blockades are also supported by Polish farmers who say that authorities are doing little to prevent the influx of cheap Ukrainian agricultural goods into Poland.
Blocking Ukrainian grain was first done by the former Law and Justice party government, but the new administration is also wary of angering farmers — a powerful voting bloc.
Poland’s new Deputy Agriculture Minster Michał Kołodziejczak — who rose to the position from being a radical farmer activist only a few months ago — caused consternation in Kyiv by saying on Saturday that Ukraine’s entry into the EU is “extremely unfavorable to Polish farmers and entrepreneurs.”
