Polish farmers plan to block border checkpoints until April

Polish farmers who are blocking roads near checkpoints with Ukraine are planning to extend their protest for another month, until April. They also do not rule out the possibility that they will start blocking passenger traffic between Ukraine and Poland, including buses.

This was stated on Tuesday in a commentary to RMF24 by Roman Kondruv, the leader of the organization of farmers “Podkarpackie Deceived Village”, which is blocking the Medyka-Shehyni checkpoint.

“We are escalating the protest action. Today I’m going to submit (documents – ed.) to extend the protest for the next month (protest – ed.), it will last until April. We will do this on a rotational basis: farmers will partly work in the field and partly stand on the border,” Kondruv said, emphasizing that the current government has not fulfilled its obligations to farmers.

He added: if the Polish government and Brussels want to have a conflict with farmers, they will have it.

Kondruv noted that if the farmers’ protest does not bring results, and the Ukrainian side blocks the border on its side, farmers may start not letting passenger buses from Ukraine through.

“If we decide not to let buses in as well, it will be very bad. But maybe then our government will finally look for meaningful solutions,” Kondruv said.

As reported by Ukrinform, on February 20, Polish farmers are holding a general strike across Poland, blocking roads, key communication hubs and checkpoints on the border with Ukraine in about 200 locations across the country. The main demands of the protesters are a ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products and Poland’s rejection of the European Green Deal.

On Tuesday, Polish farmers blocked the railroad near the Medyka checkpoint on the border with Ukraine and poured grain from a freight car onto the tracks.

Tags: Poland, protests