sThe trucks lined up with the protesters blocked almost all road traffic, and they attributed the drop in their income to the liberalization of EU border transport rules.
Rafal Mikler, one of the organizers of the demonstration, told AFP in Dorohosk (east of the country): “We want to restore the rules of fair competition.”
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union abandoned the licensing system that governed the entry of Ukrainian transport companies into Europe.
According to Polish truck drivers, this decision led to an increase in the number of Ukrainian competitors in this sector, which seriously affected their profits.
“The costs of maintaining trucks, hiring a driver, or just opening a business or insurance are much lower” compared to Poland, explained Marek Oklinski, owner of a transport company.
“They’re lowering prices and keeping the merchandise we sold before,” Oklinski added.
The demonstrators set up similar barriers at the border crossings in Hrybin and Korczova, promising to allow individual cars to pass, as well as humanitarian and military aid directed to Ukraine.
The Polish Ministry of Infrastructure said that Warsaw could not meet the demands of the demonstrators under European rules.
“The agreement was signed by the European Union… In practice, Poland does not have the means to restore the licensing system before the end of the agreement,” the ministry said in a press release sent by the protesters’ advocate. To stop the siege.
Read also: Kiev advances in the Kherson region, and the fighting intensifies in the west
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