The consequences of the blockades of border crossings by Polish truck drivers are increasingly felt in Ukraine. Several companies that supply the Ukrainian army told the AP that their deliveries are being delayed. Ukrainian charities are also facing problems.
For more than a month, Polish truck drivers have been holding up freight traffic at three border crossings into Ukraine. They demonstrate against what they consider to be unfair competition from Ukrainian colleagues. Normally there are restrictions on entry into the European Union from Ukraine, but Brussels temporarily lifted them shortly after the Russian invasion. Slovak drivers have also started a blockade.
Although the drivers have agreed to allow military equipment and humanitarian aid to pass through, shortages are slowly emerging in Ukraine. A supplier to the Ukrainian army tells AP that it takes two to three weeks longer for drones, for example, to reach the front. “The Russian army can therefore kill Ukrainian soldiers and terrorize civilians for several weeks longer,” he said.
According to aid organizations, hundreds to thousands of trucks carrying aid are currently stuck at the border. The blockades have “virtually stopped” deliveries, said the director of Come Back Alive, the largest Ukrainian charity providing equipment to the Ukrainian military. The organizations are looking for alternative supply routes, but they say there are few options.
Pepin the Tall
Also read this analysis by Central and Eastern Europe correspondent Arnout le Clercq: Blockade of Ukrainian freight traffic casts a shadow over solidarity of neighboring countries in Central Europe
Woltek Radwanski / AFP – A Ukrainian truck driver in a parking lot at the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing at Korczowa, December 5.
2023-12-09 11:26:15
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