Polish farmers blocked the “Medyka — Shehyni” crossing point on the border with Ukraine. No vehicle can pass

Farmers of Poland have blocked the “Shehyni” checkpoint. No transport can pass either to Poland or to Ukraine.

This was reported by the spokesman of the State Border Service of Ukraine (SBSU) Andriy Demchenko, in a comment to "Ukraiinska Pravda" [“Ukrainian Trurh”].

As Demchenko noted, Polish border guards informed their Ukrainian colleagues around 10:10 a.m. that farmers began blocking traffic in front of the "Medyka" checkpoint, which is opposite the Ukrainian "Shehyni".

Approximately one hundred people and 50 vehicles blocked the access road to the border. They stand a few hundred meters from the checkpoint and block traffic leaving and entering Poland. Both trucks and cars with buses cannot pass, the spokesman said.

Even yesterday, SBSU warned that the Poles would block three checkpoints — "Yagodin", "Rava-Ruska" and "Shehyni" from today. So far, the movement is free at the other two points, no information has yet been received from the Polish side about the beginning of blocking.

Hungarian border guards also warned that Hungarians may join the Polish strikers today. They will probably stage a protest on the highway to the “Zakhon” checkpoint opposite the Ukrainian “Chop (Tysa)”. In advance, the strikers will not block road traffic.

According to SBSU, from February 12, there is also a possibility of traffic complications for trucks at two checkpoints on the Polish-Ukrainian border — "Ustyluh" and "Uhryniv".

What is known about the new strikes

Earlier, Polish farmers announced a new nationwide strike. They plan to block all border crossings between Poland and Ukraine until March 10.

Polish and Hungarian farmers do not agree with the intention of the European Commission to extend the duty-free regime for exports from Ukraine until the middle of 2025. The regime is not as liberal as in the past two years and takes into account the peculiarities of EU farmers.

The new autonomous trade measures actually include quotas for the most sensitive products — poultry, eggs and sugar. If the import of these products exceeds the average annual import volumes for 2022 and 2023, duties will be imposed on them. The proposal of the European Commission should be considered by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary demanded that the European Union introduce import duties on grain from Ukraine. The European Commission refused them, but spoke of plans to introduce additional guarantees to limit the export of Ukrainian food.

Ukraine, for its part, has changed the rules for exporting agricultural products to the above-mentioned five EU countries. For violations, entrepreneurs will be deprived of verification for six months. However, this does not suit the neighbors either.