Truck drivers blocked the road at the Polish checkpoint Yagodin-Dorogusk and went on strike demanding to improve the work of the Polish phytosanitary and veterinary control, said Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Mustafa Nayem.
“Polish drivers put forward three demands: speed up phytosanitary and veterinary control and transfer the service to a round-the-clock mode of operation,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday.
According to Nayem, every hour drivers let 2 cars pass: 1 with goods and 1 empty.
He clarified that 2,650 trucks are now waiting on the border with Poland in front of the Yagodin checkpoint to leave Poland, while 300 trucks are waiting to enter Ukraine. At the same time, the line for the last day has increased by 8 km and reaches 53 km.
Naem stressed that the cause of the strike was the indifference of the Polish authorities and the pretense that “nothing is happening.”
According to the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, before the war, up to 80 trucks per day passed control, and in recent days – from 12 to 25.
“If there are objective reasons for such a slowdown, then we are ready to do everything in our power to speed up the process and increase the throughput of the checkpoint. But at the same time, we expect the same progress from all services on the Polish side,” Nayem said.
He added that the striking Polish drivers also want empty vehicles to leave Ukraine for Poland out of turn.
At the same time, the Deputy Minister stressed, it is also extremely important for Ukraine that goods leave the country for export as soon as possible.
“We have to export our products. Our carriers have to cross the border in a normal time. Because when they wait 7-10 days in line, they lose about 400 euros per car every day. In a week in line, the carrier loses more than just money , but any point in working at all,” Nayem said.
According to him, the problem of many days of idle time of carriers at the entrance to Poland should be solved by the establishment of round-the-clock phytosanitary and veterinary control.
In addition, the Deputy Minister stressed that there is no talk of abolishing the “transport visa-free regime”. “Most likely, this is a political demand of Polish carriers. The goal is to put additional pressure on the Polish government to solve the above problems,” Nayem said.
The day before, he said that the Ukrainian side repeatedly, at many closed, open, joint and bilateral meetings offered the Polish side a simple solution – to increase the number of employees of phytosanitary and veterinary services, to provide Ukrainian experts who would help Polish colleagues, or to remove this control beyond the points passes inland. However, the situation is only getting worse.
