As of 14 March, Polish farmers continue to block five border crossings – Yahodyn, Ustyluh, Uhryniv, Rava-Ruska and Shehyni – and have been blocking them completely since yesterday. This was stated in a blitz interview with Kommersant Ukrainian andriy Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service, told Kommersant Ukrainian.
What is the situation on the Polish border as of 14 March? Are there any chances that the situation will improve? What are your forecasts?
The blockade by Polish farmers continues. They are doing it in 5 directions. Specifically, these are Yagodyn, Ustyluh, Uhryniv, Rava-Ruska and Shehyni. In fact, in all of these 5 directions, they do not allow freight transports from Ukraine to Poland to pass through at all. In the direction of Ukraine, they allow a small number of trucks to pass. The most difficult situation is in the direction of the Yagodyn and Shehyni checkpoints, where they let the smallest number of trucks through. Over the past 24 hours, 70 trucks crossed to Ukraine through Yagodyn, and about 40 through Shehyni.
It is known that from 8 to 9 March, the blocking of the Krakivets crossing point was suspended, what is the current situation? Has the blocking been resumed?
Yes, indeed, from 8 to 9 March, they stopped blocking the Krakivets crossing point, which was the sixth one they had blocked before. Previously, there was information that they would resume their blocking actions on the 13th, but we see that, fortunately, they have not done so yet. We hope that they will not. But it is difficult to rule out the possibility that they will not block this direction.
There is an intensive traffic flow of trucks through Krakivets, in line with the capacity of the checkpoint. Traffic for cars and buses is not blocked. These vehicles cross the border freely in both directions.
How do buses with civilians move and how much time do people have to spend at the border on average?
Traffic is not blocked for cars and buses. At the moment, there are no queues of cars and buses at the border. It should be understood that recently the passenger traffic has been at the level of 50-70 thousand people crossing the border per day. Therefore, this is not a critical indicator that would lead to queues.
Is humanitarian aid and equipment travelling without obstacles?
At our checkpoints, we record that both humanitarian aid and other important goods for Ukraine arrive from Poland. It is difficult for me to say what is happening on the territory of Poland at a certain distance from the border, where the protesters are located, being on the roads that can be used to get to and from the border. But what we record at our checkpoints – yes, everything is arriving.
Perhaps you have counted how long the border guards have been living in this mode and whether the Polish riots affect the work of our border guards?
The blockade has been in place since 9 February. Before that, there were also blockades in November and December. Back then, Polish carriers were blocking the border, and now Polish farmers are doing it.
Author – Iryna Shevchenko