Lines of trucks exiting Belarus for EU still long, with over 2,300 trucks waiting

MINSK. Dec 26 (Interfax) - Belarusian border guards have noted the continuing presence of long queues of trucks on Belarus's borders with EU countries, the State Border Committee said.

"The situation remains tense - the queues to the EU exceed 2,300 trucks," the Committee said in a statement.

Despite the end of the year and the end of contracts with cargo carriers, the border control services of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia continue to ignore the norms for the passage of vehicles, the Border Committee says.

The route into Lithuania remains the busiest into the EU, where, as of the morning of December 26, over 1,700 heavy trucks were awaiting clearance.

"On Sunday, the control services of the Medininkai checkpoint (Kamenniy Log on the Belarusian side) accepted 24 trucks out of 500, and this is only 5% of the norm, that is, 1 vehicle out of 20 per hour. Employees of the remaining Lithuanian border crossings allowed only 32% of the waiting trucks to enter their territory," the State Border Committee said.

Since August 18, Lithuania has closed the border checkpoints Sumskas (Losa on the Belarusian side) and Tverecius (Vidzy in Belarus) on the border with Belarus to traffic. The Lithuanian government made this decision due to the geopolitical situation and the need to reduce the threat level. After the closure of Sumskas and Tverecius, four Lithuanian-Belarusian border-crossing points remain open: Medininkai/Kamenniy Log, Lavoriskes/Kotlovka, Raigardas/Privalka and Salcininkai/Benyakoni.

In Poland, since April 2022, there has been a ban on the movement of Belarusian and Russian trucks across the border, and since June 2023, trailers registered in Belarus and Russian are included. At present, the only operating checkpoint for freight transport on the Belarusian-Polish border is the Kozlovichi/Kukuryki international automobile checkpoint.