Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) has announced the arrival of a batch of trucks to Poland by rail from Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian and Polish parties have agreed on all issues of transportation and customs and border procedures. The trucks will continue to their destination by road,” UZ said on its Telegram channel on Sunday.
The company emphasized that the next shipments are planned to be regular and involve more modernized platforms in transportation.
UZ reminded that it had organized a container train between Ukraine and Poland to transport trucks. It runs on the route Sknyliv (Ukraine) – Slavków (Poland). To order the transportation of a truck by a container train from Ukraine, you need to contact the Liski Transport Service Center branch of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, and in the opposite direction – UZ Cargo Poland.
As reported, UZ sent the first container train with trucks to Poland on December 7. In this way, Ukrainian exporters tried to solve the problem of crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border, which had been blocked by Polish carriers for a month.
As of Tuesday morning, November 17, approximately 2,400 trucks are waiting to leave Poland at three checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border – Yagodyn-Dorogusk, Krakovets-Korcheva, and Rava-Ruska-Krebenne, said Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS).
“Unfortunately, the blocking of traffic for trucks in three directions has been in place since November 6. As of this morning, there are about 2,400 trucks on the territory of Poland heading out of this country to Ukraine. Most of them are in front of the Yagodyn checkpoint – 1,100 trucks, the rest are heading towards the Krakovets and Rava-Ruska checkpoints,” he said on the air of the national telethon.
The speaker noted that the strikers let several vehicles pass in all directions in an hour.
“The only more or less intense traffic we see is at the Krakovets checkpoint, when trucks are traveling from Ukraine to Poland,” Demchenko said.
He added that in general, the number of vehicles waiting to cross the border from Poland to Ukraine has been at the level of 2400-2500 in recent days.
“At the same time, carriers are choosing other routes. For several days now, we have been observing a congestion of trucks opposite the Shehyni checkpoint. There are about 1,100 trucks there,” the State Border Guard Service said.
As reported, on November 6, Polish carriers began a blockade of freight traffic at three checkpoints: Korchova-Krakovets, Hrebenne-Rava-Ruska and Dorohusk-Yagodyn.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Zvarych said that the blockade of freight traffic towards the three checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border is a “painful stab in the back of Ukraine” and jeopardizes the “solidarity corridors” that carry Ukrainian grain to third countries.
In July-September this year, the cargo turnover of the port of Kolobrzeg increased by 52% due to the resumption of transshipment of Ukrainian agricultural products, the Polish edition of Rynek Infrastruktury reports.
According to the report, Kolobrzeg was not previously included in the Polish government’s resolution on the transit of Ukrainian grain. In the third quarter, the port resumed accepting Ukrainian agricultural products, which helped increase cargo turnover.
In the third quarter, the Polish port handled more than 73 thousand tons of cargo, which is 52% more than in the same period of 2022, when 48 thousand tons were handled. The cargo included grain, logs, limestone, pellets and fertilizers. Grain accounts for half of the transshipment. Among the grains transshipped in Kolobrzeg, corn and barley were the most common.
The port temporarily suspended operations in April this year. Back then, the Polish authorities banned imports of Ukrainian grain but allowed its transit. At first, Kolobrzeg was not on the list of ports that could handle Ukrainian grain, but later the Polish government allowed the company to handle Ukrainian cargo.
“We have demonstrated that we are unpredictable in our actions as a country, so building long-term business relations is perceived as risky, as one decree can turn everything upside down”, said Artur Lievski, head of the port’s administration.
A week after the ban was imposed by the Polish government, the mistake was corrected: Kolobrzeg was included in the list of seaports through which grain can be transited from Ukraine. However, it took a long time to restore trust, and for some time no freight trains with Ukrainian products arrived in Kolobrzeg. After a three-month break, the first train with corn from Ukraine arrived at the seaport of Kolobrzeg in late July, the newspaper said.
On Sunday, October 15, Poland holds elections to the Sejm, Senate, as well as a national referendum, voting began at 7.00 and will last until 21.00, reports Polskie Radio.
It is noted that citizens have been created conditions for voting in Poland, abroad and even on ships. According to the chairman of the National Election Commission Sylwester Marciniak, more than 31 thousand electoral districts have been created.
“There are 29 thousand 292 stationary constituencies, 1,701 separate constituencies, and in addition, 417 constituencies abroad have been created, however, one was eliminated in Israel, and 8 constituencies for voting on ships have been created,” Marciniak emphasized
According to Polskie Radio, 29 million Polish citizens have the right to vote in elections and referendums. More than 391 thousand voting certificates have been issued, which allow voting not at the place of residence.
It is noted that Poles will elect 460 deputies and 100 senators. And the referendum should answer four questions: whether they support the removal of the fence on the border with Belarus, support for the privatization of state-owned enterprises, raising the retirement age to 60 years for women and 65 years for men, as well as whether they agree to accept thousands of illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa, in accordance with the mechanism of forced relocation, which operates in the EU.
As DW reports, according to the latest opinion polls, the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party of Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski with 34% of the vote is only slightly ahead of the opposition liberal-conservative Civic Platform (CP) party of former Polish Prime Minister and former President of the European Council Donald Tusk, for which 32% of voters are ready to vote.
It is emphasized that in case of victory each of the contenders will have to look for partners to create a government coalition.