Ukraine deputy PM says Polish protesters block Ukrainian buses at border
Participants in the protests organised on the Polish side of the border with Ukraine, as well as the Polish police, do not allow buses to cross the border in both directions, a deputy prime minister of Ukraine has announced.
Polish farmers have been protesting since last year against EU regulations that allow some Ukrainian agricultural produce tariff-free access to EU markets. They argue that this has led to a drop in prices of their own produce and made it hard to sell it on the domestic market.
On Monday, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister and minister of infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, wrote on the X platform in English that "There is unpleasant news from the blocked Polish border. Protesters and police are stopping buses going to and from Poland. Passengers are being held without any explanation.
"We emphasise that these actions are unacceptable in relation to Ukrainian citizens," he added.
"During the war in Ukraine, the passengers of such buses are women with young children, socially vulnerable categories, military personnel returning or going to training, and people in transit. An attempt to make them hostages to a protest seems inappropriate for the civilized world," Kubrakov's post further read.
The message was addressed to the head of Poland's National Security Bureau (BBN), Jacek Siewiera, the Polish police, and the minister of interior and administration, Marcin Kierwinski.
Earlier on Monday, Kubrakov told the RBK-Ukraina portal that Poles should not have Ukrainians as their enemy because the two countries share a common enemy which is Russia.
He also said that Ukrainian agricultural products do not pose any threat to the Polish market.
Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, later announced that the Consul General of Ukraine in Lublin went to the border crossing in Dorohusk to hold talks on-site in order to "prevent any delays to passenger bus traffic."
"The movement of passenger cars and buses must take place without any obstacles," Zvarych wrote on Facebook.
Later on Monday, a spokeswoman for the Polish police denied the news about the bus traffic obstruction.
"It's not true, nothing like that is happening. We, the police, are absolutely not checking humanitarian, military or medical aid, or buses with people. They pass through smoothly," she said.
The spokeswoman for Poland's Ministry of Interior and Administration, Paulina Klimek, on Monday evening, has also denied the news given by Kyiv.
"The information provided is untrue. Humanitarian, medical and military aid as well as buses with civilians are passing through without any difficulties," she told PAP on Monday evening.
On February 22, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that to ensure a 100-percent guarantee that military and humanitarian aid will reach Ukraine without any delays, border crossings with Ukraine and the related roads and railways will be entered onto the list of critical infrastructure. (PAP)
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