Lithuanian Minister of Agriculture Kęstutis Navickas said that his department and customs have no evidence that Ukrainian grain from Lithuania is returning to Poland. This is exactly what the Poles are justifying their protests with.
The minister said this after an unsuccessful attempt to convince Polish farmers not to block the Polish-Lithuanian border on March 1, writes LRT.
According to him, more Polish grain is imported to Lithuania than Lithuanian grain to Poland, so he considers such statements groundless. In addition, the protesters did not submit any complaints or evidence to Lithuania, which would indicate that part of the Ukrainian grain, according to the documents, becomes Lithuanian and returns to Poland.
"We did not receive such complaints, we did not record such facts. Talking with the customs, and there was a meeting today, [I can say that] they have very clear algorithms on how to see in which cases this or that illegal act may occur. Similar actions have not been recorded either," the minister noted.
In the end, Lithuania failed to convince Polish farmers, who plan to block the road on March 1 at the former “Kalvariya-Budzisk” border crossing. The blockade is expected to last for about a week.
The coordinator of the blockade, Karol Pechynskyi (verbally) claims that Ukrainian grain, which goes to Lithuania through Poland, returns to Poland again after the change of documents. Therefore, he believes that in this way the embargo on the import of grain from Ukraine, which Warsaw introduced on September 15, is being circumvented.