Over 2,300 trucks waiting to cross into EU from Belarus, line keeps growing

MINSK. Dec 1 (Interfax) - Over 2,300 trucks were waiting to cross into the European Union from Belarus on Friday morning, the Belarusian State Border Committee said in a statement.

"The number of trucks headed to the EU reached 2,300 by the weekend. As of 10 a.m., the busiest route to the EU goes through the Polish Kukuryki checkpoint [Kozlovichi on the side of Belarus], where more than 730 trucks are waiting to cross into the adjacent territory. The controlling services admitted less than half of the normal number of vehicles, 45%, over the day," the statement said.

About 1,500 trucks are waiting to cross the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. "The smallest number of vehicles has been cleared at the Medininkai checkpoint [Kamenny Log on the side of Belarus] - 7% of the normal number, or one truck out of 20 possible within an hour. The most congested checkpoint in this area is Shalcininkai (Benyakoni)," it said.

Forty-three percent of the normal number of trucks have crossed into the EU through the Latvian checkpoint Paternieki (Belarus' Grigorovshchina) over the day, the committee said.

It said on Thursday that the total number of trucks stranded at the Belarus-EU border had topped 2,000, compared to approximately 1,400 the day before.