KORCZOWA. – They are terrorists, shouts an angry Ukrainian truck driver.
– There are sick people here, and they don’t get medicine. If you run out of diesel, it gets cold in the cabin, the other will accompany you.
– We are their prisoners. There’s some toxic cargo here, and now it’s standing here, someone in the group raises their voice.
The atmosphere on the border roads between Poland and Ukraine is very tense. Ukrainian truck drivers are so angry with the Poles that they don’t even agree to interviews with Polish journalists. A Finn, on the other hand, is fine to comment.
Polish drivers have been blocking roads with their trucks at several border crossing points to Ukraine for more than two weeks.
They have a valid reason for their protest. After all, they are against it EU decisionwhich frees up imports from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Many Polish companies have gone bankrupt, and the prices of agricultural products have collapsed, says the MP from the Farmers’ Party, recently elected to the Polish Parliament Michał Kołodziejczak.
He became famous by starting farmers’ protests against cheap Ukrainian imports last year. Kołodziejczak has a salad and cabbage farm, but now his main job is to do politics.
– People have a wrong idea about farms in Ukraine. The food business there is controlled by international giants, and the money earned now flows to the tax havens of Cyprus and Malta, says Kołodziejczak.
According to Kołodziejczak, the core of the problem is this:
– Big food companies are blackmailing us. If we don’t sell cheap enough, they will buy cheaper from Ukraine. If no solution is found to this, another big conflict will arise between Poland and Ukraine.
According to Kołodziejczak, Polish farms are also fighting a “war” every day, namely an economic war.
– Why would someone else’s war be more than ours? It’s very hard for us too, says Kołodziejczak.
The economy of many corn, wheat and vegetable farms in particular has collapsed. According to Kołodziejczak, Ukraine’s advantageous competitive position is taken advantage of by all entities trading in foodstuffs.
In his opinion, the EU should protect the internal market, but now it is messed up by a non-EU country.
– When Ukraine’s corruption is brought under control, I would very much like to welcome it as a member, but it should not put the EU countries in a better position in trade before membership, says Kołodziejczak.
The protest is expanding
Farmers joining the truck drivers’ border protest today, Thursday. According to the Polish media, several hundred Polish farmers will go there.
There are now rotting foodstuffs, construction waste and loads of diapers standing in the truck queues. Polish truck drivers only allow arms deliveries and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Most of the drivers have been sleeping in their cabs for two weeks already. On Wednesday, they had enough and started marching in hundreds to the Poles to show their opinion. Riot police blocked their way at the roundabout.
Finally, the Ukrainians gave up and returned to their trucks.
– Ukrainians no longer have any restrictions, they can deliver goods to Poland completely freely. It’s destroying our business, we can’t pay salaries, a Polish transport entrepreneur Mateusz Ogrodniczuk tells. The wages of Ukrainian drivers are lower than those of Poles.
Ogrodniczuk and his colleagues have pasted a yellow sign on the adjacent fence with a rhyme in Polish: When Ukraine doesn’t need permits, it means bankruptcy of Polish transport.
– They call us terrorists, but in the same way Poles have to queue on the Ukrainian side of the border. There, only Ukrainians can go through customs directly, says Ogrodniczuk.
Ukrainian Vitaly has already spent ten days at the border. He has not progressed at all for two days.
Vitali knows that there are 712 cars ahead of him. Sometimes the Poles let 30 trucks through a day, sometimes only a few, he says.
– I talk on the phone, watch movies and exercise, there is nothing else to do here, Vitali says. The cab offers a view of the open trailer in front, transporting crashed cars to Ukraine.
Before the Polish demonstration, almost 50,000 trucks and lorries crossed the Polish border through eight different border crossing points per month.
It is double the amount compared to the time before the war. Most of the cargo has been transported this year by Ukrainian vehicles.
The Polish and Ukrainian governments have tried to negotiate a compromise to ease the situation – so far to no avail.