Polish truckers and farmers on Monday, the 29th of April, ended a months-long blockade of several border crossings with Ukraine that had soured bilateral relations, with Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi praising Poland’s efforts and pointing to the difficult negotiations, but stressing that “the most important thing is that we have a result”, reports Reuters.
Polish truckers and farmers have blocked border crossings with Ukraine in late autumn last year, worried about unfair competition and cheap grain, because since the Russian war in Ukraine, Ukrainian truckers have been allowed to cross the border without any permits.
“Fortunately, all directions on the border with Poland have been unblocked,” said Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian border guard, adding that Polish farmers had cleared Rava-Ruska border crossing.
He said that trucks started crossing the border in both directions on Monday morning.
Andrzej Juzwiak, a spokesman for the Polish border guard, told Reuters that access to Ukraine through all border crossings was “without hindrance”.
Poland’s agriculture ministry said late on Sunday that farmers had announced an end to protests after talks with Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski.
According to the Ukrainian Border Guard Service, trucks transporting grains will continue to face restrictions. They will only be allowed to transit through Poland.
In an attempt to meet the demands of protesters, Poland decided earlier this month to pay a subsidy of 2.1 billion zlotys to farmers to compensate for low grain prices.
“I believe that such blockades are a thing of the past,” wrote Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, on Facebook.
Roman Kondrow, head of a local farmers’ organisation, told Polish news agency PAP that protests could resume if deemed necessary, while Adrian Wawrzyniak of the farmers’ union Solidarity told Reuters that
talks with the government were continuing and that a protest was still planned for the 10th of May in Warsaw.
Warsaw and Kyiv have been negotiating at various levels to resolve the issue and Ukraine has called on the European Union to intervene. Although progress was made in the negotiations on agricultural imports in March, a final agreement had not yet been reached as the countries sought to reconcile their economic and security interests.
Also read: Polish truckers to block Ukrainian border crossings in protest
