Poland introduces new restrictions on Belarusian carriers; the line of cars is already 40 km long

Poland announced on Monday that it will temporarily close the last border crossing point on the border with Belarus, which is still open for cargo traffic, to Belarusian carriers, thus responding to the restrictions imposed by Minsk on Polish road cargo.

The mutual conflict has been taking effect for several days, and the queue of trucks at the Koroščina border crossing already exceeds 40 kilometers.

“Traffic will be suspended until (..) the Belarusian authorities lift the restrictions on Polish carriers,” the Polish Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.

The conflict affecting truckers began on February 10, when Poland closed the Bobrovnik border crossing for national security reasons.

The decision came immediately after Polish-born journalist Andrzej Pochobur was sentenced in Belarus to eight years in prison for criticizing dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.

Minsk reacted to this “unilateral” and “inhumane” decision by imposing restrictions on Polish truckers, who are now allowed to enter and leave Belarus only through the border crossing points on the common border of the two countries, while the use of border crossing points on the border of Belarus with Latvia or Lithuania is prohibited from now on.

About 1,900 trucks are currently queuing at the Koroščina border crossing, waiting for about 63 hours to cross the border.

This border crossing point will also be closed for Belarusian carriers from Tuesday evening, the Ministry of the Interior of Poland announced.

Then Belarusian trucks will be able to return to Belarus only through Latvia and Lithuania.