Number of trucks waiting to cross from Belarus into Poland quadruples over past day - Belarusian Border Committee

MINSK. March 5 (Interfax) - The number of trucks on the Belarusian side of the border waiting to cross into Poland has quadrupled over the past 24 hours, the Belarusian State Border Committee said on Tuesday.

"Following the closure of checkpoints by Lithuania, the transport flows to the EU have redistributed, increasing the load on the functioning border crossings. In particular, the number of trucks at the Polish border crossing Kukuryki (Kozlovichi) grew from 50 to 200 over the past day," the Border Committee said.

Its staff have cleared 52% of these trucks, it said.

The route to EU countries via the Medininkai (Kamenny Log) border crossing remains the busiest, the Border Committee said. Only 18% of the routine number of trucks were cleared there over the past day.

Forty-seven percent of the standard number of trucks have been cleared for passage via Latvia's Paternieki border crossing, located opposite the Grigorovshchina border crossing in Belarusian territory.

Only two checkpoints, Medininkai and Salcininkai, are currently functioning on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. Lithuania closed the Sumskas (Losha) and Tverecius (Vidzy) crossings on the border with Belarus on August 18, 2023. The Lavoriskes (Kotlovka) and Raigardas (Privalka) border crossings were closed on March 1, 2024.

On February 6, 2024 Lithuania's National Security Commission proposed to gradually reduce the number of permits issued to Belarusian and Lithuanian carriers providing regular transborder passenger bus service, and to limit passenger boarding and disembarking at the Kyana (Kybartai) railroad checkpoint.

Poland has closed all but one border crossings with Belarus.

In August 2023, ministers of Poland and Baltic states agreed a plan clarifying in which case the borders with Belarus could be closed completely.