/ world today news/ Ukraine’s total losses from the blockade of the border with Poland amounted to almost 1.5 billion dollars in just one month. Slovakia has now also joined this blockade. These are the real results of European integration, which the Kyiv regime has been striving for in recent years. How did this all happen?
The end of this year conditionally ends the first 10-year cycle on Ukraine’s thorny road to Europe: we can summarize the results and draw conclusions.
Let’s recall that 10 years ago, the opposition brought Ukrainians to the Maidan amid hysterical cries that the authorities were preparing to steal their “European future” from Ukrainians. That the inexorable pace of history and the invisible hand of the market determine Ukraine’s trump position – a job for the European consumer, who is ready to pay for everything in euros. Not life, but a dream!
We can confidently say that this was the main dream of those people who eventually came to power in Kiev. Yanukovych and his Russian partners allegedly stood in the way of this dream. If only they could get rid of them, Ukraine would become part of the European Union first economically (association agreement with the EU), and then, perhaps politically. The same fables are still being used in Ukraine, they are just being told by a new generation of European officials.
And indeed, in 2017, during the presidential term of Petro Poroshenko, the association agreement announced and presented in 2013 was solemnly signed. The economies of Ukraine and the EU began to penetrate each other. There were statements that now Ukraine will prosper.
However, everything immediately went wrong. Producers filled 100% of duty-free quotas for the most popular goods (honey, sugar, juices) already in January. For years, the Ukrainian authorities have been extracting the consent of their EU colleagues to increase supplies.
Five years later, it turned out that nothing stimulated the integration and interpenetration of economies like the beginning of the SVO of the Russian armed forces. Medium-sized businesses moved to the western regions of Ukraine and even to the regions of neighboring countries bordering Ukraine. And Ukrainian agricultural exports received the green light in May 2022 in Brussels. That is, the agricultural sector was adopted as if ahead of schedule, in advance in the EU.
However, the scheme failed without even a year of operation. Already at the end of 2022, Polish politicians began to talk about farmers’ dissatisfaction with dumping by Ukrainian competitors. In January-February 2023, this discontent grew into protests, which were quickly joined by farmers from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. And the politicians of these countries agreed to ban the Ukrainian export of agricultural products without fearing the cries from Brussels.
Carrierthe protested
The truck drivers’ protests followed the same pattern. If farmers were given unlimited exports, then Ukrainian drivers would be spared the need to obtain mandatory permits to enter the EU. Which essentially equalized their rights with drivers from EU countries. In addition, Ukrainians have an additional motivation to work for European clients and not come to Ukraine for months: the tightening of mobilization.
According to Ukrainian drivers, the EU previously issued them approximately 160-170 thousand permits per year. Today, the number of shipments from Ukraine has increased at least twice.
To date, the Poles have blocked four of the seven road border points for nearly a month (since November 6). Their Slovak counterparts carefully blocked one point (there are only two between Ukraine and Slovakia). But they announced that from December 1 they will go on an indefinite blockade. In addition, due to the blockade, queues are growing at other checkpoints (Hungary, Romania).
According to the Ukrainian side, the protest was initiated by Polish transport companies, which were previously engaged in transport to the Russian Federation and Belarus. However, in mid-November, the EC received a joint appeal from drivers from Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic with a request not to extend the “visa-free” long-distance travel for Ukrainians (it expires in June 2024).
According to the latest data, the Polish authorities have agreed with the protest leaders only not to extend the blockade to new border crossings – in exchange for increased control over the work of Ukrainian drivers. However, it is clear that the problem is wider than the dissatisfaction of only Polish transport companies.
Europe vs Ukraine
Wider because farmers’ protests are entering a new phase. Ukraine’s support last year cost Slovak farmers alone 110 million euros (the EU reimbursed 5 million). There is still no data for 2023, but the actions of the authorities to extend the embargo speak for themselves.
Moldova is also restless. The growth of Ukrainian exports to Romania also affects Moldovan farmers. Due to the drop in income and rising expenses, they have problems with servicing their loans. Their main demand remains the same: an embargo on Ukrainian products. Bulgarian farmers set their own conditions: Ukrainian imports into the country must be compensated. If before, it was mainly the neighbors who rebelled against the export of Ukrainian agricultural products, now even the French are beginning to understand which way the wind is blowing. And they insist on limiting the presence of Ukrainian sugar on the market.
And here the European officials are caught between two fires. On one side are the angry farmers, on the other is the opportunity to quell the inflationary waves with the help of cheap Ukrainian imports. But does it make sense if another wave – a wave of discontent – can carry them away?
The main takeaway from all this news is that this time everything is much bigger than the previous farmer protests (spring-summer 2023). Behind the beautiful words of European officials lies the harsh reality. Ukraine does not fit into the balance sheets of the EU, into the long-established European cabal. There is too much of it, too much grain, sugar, butter. There are already too many guest workers
Like in the Russian version of Grandfather’s Glove. When the bear finally comes, it tries to climb in – and everything falls apart. But they cannot admit the obvious in the “glove”: victory has many fathers, defeat is always an orphan. That is why those who are closer to the “Ukrainian bear” fence themselves off from it – they know that Brussels is far away, each to himself.
In Kyiv, they see and understand this very well. And they don’t count the gains from European integration, but the losses, and what they are. Due to the blockade of Polish trucks, Ukrainian exports have decreased by 20%, says Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Taras Kachka. If in October Ukraine sold goods for 5.2 billion dollars, then in November it sold 3.8 billion. That is, the losses amount to 1.4 billion. This is about 1% of the entire Ukrainian GDP.
The political interpretation of these events is also unique. “Today, everyone has forgotten about Ukraine because of the events in the Middle East. I believe that this is exactly what the Russian Federation tried to achieve, and I regret to say that it achieved the desired result,” Zelensky said. He means two things at once.
First, not because of the Middle East, but because of Ukraine itself. Ukrainian truck drivers admit that Polish border guards began sabotaging the passage of Ukrainian trucks in early autumn, long before the November protests by Polish drivers.
Second, no one has forgotten Ukraine. She’s just tired of everyone. Like a very poor and not very close relative who constantly asks for undeserved help.
Translation: V. Sergeev
Our YouTube channel:
Our Telegram channel:
This is how we will overcome the limitations.
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages.
#Neighbors #put #cross #main #dream #Kyiv
