Polish farmers lift blockade at one checkpoint: who and what can pass through?

Polish farmers have stopped blocking lorry traffic at the Medyka-Shehyni checkpoint as of 21 March. Four other checkpoints remain blocked. Source: Colonel Andrii Demchenko, spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine

Quote: "Ukrainian border guards received this news from representatives of the Polish Border Guard at around 21:30 the previous day (March 20). They stated that Polish farmers had stopped blocking the movement of lorries entering and leaving Poland.

Therefore, these vehicles are now being cleared through customs in the usual manner [without the strict protester-enforced quotas]." Details: Demchenko said that as of this morning, four checkpoints remain blocked for lorry traffic: Yahodyn, Ustyluh, Uhryniv and Rava Ruska.

Polish farmers allow different numbers of lorries to pass through most of these checkpoints in both directions, but lorries seeking to enter Poland from Ukraine are still not allowed to transit through Rava Ruska and Yahodyn at all. In addition, only a very small number of lorries were allowed into Ukraine at Yahodyn. Demchenko added that over the past day, only 50 were allowed through, which is a critically low figure for this checkpoint.

As of the morning of 21 March, almost 850 lorries were queuing at the four blocked crossing points in Poland, most of them at Yahodyn and Rava Ruska. Demchenko said that there are also queues at other Ukrainian border checkpoints, as drivers divert to crossings in countries other than Poland due to traffic congestion. In particular, there is a queue of 1,000 lorries in front of the Tisza checkpoint in Hungary, another 530 lorries lining up in front of the Uzhhorod checkpoint on the Slovak side, and almost 400 lorries on the Romanian-Ukrainian border in front of the Porubne checkpoint.

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