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.
The Cabinet of Ministers has expanded the list of checkpoints through which it is allowed to transport vehicles purchased abroad for the period of martial law, according to a government decree dated June 14, 2022.
According to it, the government allowed the import of imported cars through a number of sea checkpoints, including the Black Sea Fishing Port, the Black Sea Shipyard, the Odessa Commercial Sea Port, the Pivdenny seaport, the Reniysky, Ust-Danubsky, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky seaports, as well as the ferry complex “Orlovka”.
Earlier, the Cabinet of Ministers limited the checkpoints for moving imported cars to three – Ustilug, Grushev and Maly Berezny.
Lviv customs is expanding the capacity of two checkpoints on the border with Poland, said at a briefing acting. head of the Lviv customs Daniil Menshikov.
According to him, since this morning, trucks up to 7.5 tons have been allowed to enter the Grushiv checkpoint, and earlier there was a limit of no more than 3.5 tons.
Also, at the Krakovets checkpoint, work is underway on the construction of temporary modules for the passage of cars on the A4 highway
“We plan to open this road next week, and we will use all 8 lanes at the Krakovets checkpoint for passing trucks,” Menshikov said.
In turn, Igor Matviychuk, deputy chief of staff of the Western Regional Directorate of the State Border Service, said that vehicles up to 7.5 tons were also allowed to pass at the Ustilug checkpoint in the Volyn region, which should reduce the load on the Yagodyn checkpoint.
According to him, work is also underway on the border with Romania – the Krasnoilsk checkpoint is 90% ready for commissioning, and the Dyakovtsy checkpoint is 60%.
The possibility of resuming the work of checkpoints on the railway in Transcarpathia is also being considered – we are talking about the checkpoints “Dilov” and “Teresva”.
The EU will finance the reconstruction of Dyakovtsy and Koasnoilsk checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Romanian border, the State Customs Service reported.
As the Telegram service indicated on Thursday following a working meeting with the head of the Romanian customs, Bogdan Migei, EU funding will be directed to building infrastructure for trucks from the Ukrainian side.
At the same time, the customs did not specify the amount of funding that would be required for these works.
The Cabinet of Ministers has determined three checkpoints for the movement of cars purchased abroad: “Ustilug” and “Grushev” on the Polish border and “Maly Berezny” on the Slovak one.
The corresponding order of the Cabinet of Ministers dated May 3, 2022 No. 354-r was published on the government portal.
As reported, since April 25, Ukraine has limited the number of checkpoints for the import of cars with foreign registration for their own needs. The crossing of such vehicles became available at the Ugrinov, Grushev, Smelnitsa and Ustilug checkpoints (on the Polish border), as well as through Maly Berezny on the Slovak border and through Davinkovoe and Kosino on the Hungarian border. This decision was due to the appearance of queues at checkpoints after the Verkhovna Rada removed the need to pay customs duties, VAT and excise for such imports.
Hungary on Wednesday, July 7, has resumed the passage of persons and vehicles through the checkpoints Lónya and Barabash.
“We ask citizens who plan to cross the border with Hungary to take into account that the pass is carried out at the checkpoint Kosyno – Barabash from 8:00 to 20:00 [Kyiv time] and at the checkpoint Dzvinkovoe – Lónya from 8:00 to 19:00 [Kyiv time],” the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Hungarian side reported that the ability to cross these checkpoints was temporarily limited. The work of checkpoints on the Ukrainian side did not stop.
