Polish truckers go on strike at Jagodzin-Dorohusk border crossing point - Ukrainian official

MOSCOW. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Truck drivers have blocked the road at the Polish border crossing point Jagodzin-Dorohusk and have gone on strike to demand that the Polish phyto-sanitary and veterinary control services improve their work there, Ukrainian Deputy Infrastructure Minister Mustafa Nayem said.

"Polish drivers have put forward three demands, namely that phyto-sanitary and veterinary control procedures be accelerated and that the services switch to round-the-clock operation," Nayem wrote on Facebook.

The striking drivers are currently letting only one truck carrying goods and one empty truck cross the border per hour, he said.

As many as 2,650 trucks are currently lined up to cross into Poland through the Jagodzin crossing point, while only 300 trucks are waiting to cross into Ukraine there, Nayem said.

The line of trucks on the Ukrainian side of the border has grown by another eight kilometers to reach 53 kilometers over the past 24 hours, he said.

Ukrainian media quoted Nayem as saying that the strike might have been caused by indifference of Polish authorities and their attempts to pretend that "nothing special is happening."

"If there are objective reasons for such slow work, we are willing to do all we can to speed the process up and increase the crossing point's throughput capacity. At the same time, we also expect the same progress from all Polish services," Nayem said.

"We need to export our products. Our truckers should be able to cross the border within reasonable timeframes, because, when they wait for seven to ten days in a line, they lose about 400 euros per automobile a day. Spending a week in the line, a trucker loses not just money but any sense to work at all," Nayem said.

The problem of long lines of trucks entering Poland from Ukraine should be resolved through arranging round-the-clock phyto-sanitary and veterinary control procedures, he said.

Nayem had said the day before that Ukraine had proposed several times that the number of Polish phyto-sanitary and veterinary specialists be increased or that these procedures be moved deeper into Polish territory outside of the border crossing points. Ukraine also offered to dispatch its experts to help their Polish counterparts, he said. However, the situation is only worsening thus far, he said.