Ukrainian and Polish farmers stop protests, unblock traffic on border
MOSCOW. June 13 (Interfax) - Polish farmers on Saturday halted their protest at the Dorohusk border crossing in the Lublin province, and Ukrainian farmers stopped blocking traffic at four international crossings on the Ukrainian side of the border on Sunday.
Polish farmers responded to a request from Poland's Agriculture Minister Robert Telus, who invited them to negotiations in the middle of the week, Ukrainian media said, citing RMF FM.
"As regards the demands put forth by farmers, almost all of them are already being met by the Polish government. I have promised that we will do all we can to ensure that farmers receive the first funds as early as June," Telus said after a meeting with protesters.
The minister said that prolonging the purchase of grain until July 15 is the only demand the fulfilment of which he cannot promise.
"I can't give any promises in this respect, because our goal is to do our best to ensure that farmers' warehouses become empty before the collection of the [new] harvest starts, before July 1, in order to be able to use these funds," he said.
"Following symmetrical measures taken by Ukrainian farmers, Polish farmers stopped blocking truck traffic and concluded the strike ahead of time. In response to the steps taken by their Polish colleagues, Ukrainian farmers also stopped their mirror protest," Ukrainian media said on Sunday, citing the press service of the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC).
UAC head Andrei Dikun said it was not the first time the transportation of Ukrainian cargoes to Poland had been physically blocked, thus violating all rules set in Ukraine's Trade Agreement with the European Union.
As reported, Polish farmers on Friday started a protest on a road leading to the border crossing in Dorohusk on the border with Ukraine. They said that during the protest, two trucks would be allowed to cross from Poland into Ukraine every hour, but no trucks would be let into Poland from Ukraine. The protest was expected to continue until midnight on Monday.
Representatives of UAC and the Association of Milk Producers, for their part, announced a mirror protest, during which traffic at the Dorohusk-Yagodin, Krakovets-Korchova, Rava-Russkaya and Shegeni-Medica border crossings would be blocked from June 10 to June 14.
As a result of the protests staged by farmers of the two countries, some 450 trucks were waiting on the Polish side of the border on Sunday to pass through the Dorohusk-Yagodin crossing, and there were nearly 4,000 trucks on the Ukrainian side of the border.