Polish farmers block additional checkpoint on border with Ukraine

MOSCOW. Feb 19 (Interfax) - Trucks traveling in both directions across the Dorohusk-Yagodin border checkpoint on the Polish-Ukrainian border were completely blocked on February 18 by Polish farmers holding a large-scale protest on the access roads in front of Dorohusk, Ukrainian media reported, citing a post by the State Customs Service of Ukraine on its Telegram channel.

"Contrary to the protesters' promises to allow perishable, dangerous or humanitarian cargo through, not a single truck has been allowed to cross the border since then," the statement said.

Meanwhile, regular buses were allowed through as usual, without queues.

"According to a video distributed online, since noon on February 18, Polish protesters tried [in addition to blocking the road] to obstruct the movement of trains on the railway tracks in Dorohusk, which may be a false start of the action previously announced for February 20," the State Customs Service said.

The previously announced participation of farmers from other European countries in the Polish protest had not been confirmed as of Sunday evening, the Customs Service said.

A nationwide farmers' strike started in Poland on February 9. The reason for the protest was the proposal from the European Commission to extend the current duty-free trade regime with Ukraine, valid until June, through 2025. The protests will last 30 days, during which farmers intend to block all Ukrainian-Polish border crossings and transport hubs. As of February 13, only part of the border was blocked (five checkpoints); the protesters wanted to expand the blockade to the remaining checkpoints as of February 20. Meanwhile, on February 16, information was published about the blocking of the Krakovets-Korczowa border checkpoint. It is one of the main crossings into Poland for the export of agricultural products from Ukraine to foreign markets.

Ukraine's State Border Guard Service posted on social media that, following the initial blocking of the border by Polish farmers on February 9, the number of registered vehicles decreased during the week (from February 10 to February 16) compared to the week before from 113,000 to 105,000, while the number of vehicles carrying humanitarian cargo decreased from 690 to 686.

Statistics from the Polish border service also confirm approximately equal flows of vehicles entering and leaving Ukraine: 129,200 versus 127,000 for the period from February 9 to 15, while a week earlier these figures were 130,000 versus 128,800, respectively.