"Polish farmers are afraid of cheap Ukrainian wheat, we're afraid of Ukrainian truckers. We're being swamped by their trucks." Jacek Sokol is the owner of a road transport company and one of the leading protesters at the Ukrainian border. He summed up the mood of the country's truckers with these words to the Polish media. Since Monday, November 6, several industry organizations have been blocking the Dorohusk, Hrebenne and Korczowa border crossings in south-eastern Poland. Almost all road traffic has been paralyzed. One truck per hour is allowed through, with the exception of humanitarian convoys and aid to the Ukrainian army. Their strike action could last several weeks.

The demonstrators, who blame the fall in their income on the liberalization of border transport rules for Ukraine by the European Union (EU) since the start of the invasion in February 2022, are demanding that the regulations in force before the outbreak of war be reinstated. At that time, Ukrainian trucks could only enter Poland with a special permit. "Certain solutions are being introduced without consulting us. We're being presented with a fait accompli, and we don't understand what's going on," said Sokol.

Polish drivers have also denounced the lack of control over Ukrainian trucks, which, in theory, have no authorization to transport goods between EU countries. "In practice, most trucks arrive empty, pick up loads in Poland and take them all over Europe. They simply take our work away from us," said Bartosz Jasinski, owner of a trucking company. According to industry organizations, nearly 900,000 Ukrainian trucks entered Poland this year, compared with 180,000 per year before the war.

Truckers feel discriminated against and are demanding checks on the Ukrainian electronic queuing system for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) at the border. Polish drivers traveling to Ukraine are forced to wait up to two weeks empty before returning to Poland. For Warsaw, which has the largest HGV fleet in the EU, accounting for almost 25% of trucks on the road, this is a key issue. In 2022, the road and logistics sector was worth 375 billion zlotys (€84 billion), or 7% of the country's gross domestic product and 6.5% of jobs.

The Ukrainian government said on Tuesday that it had yet to receive an "official request" from Polish truckers. "If there is an official and reasoned position from our Polish partners, we are open to constructive dialogue," the infrastructure ministry said in a statement, saying it was "in constant communication" with Polish and European authorities to "resolve" this crisis and "unblock the checkpoints as soon as possible." "The blocking of the border is detrimental to the interests of both countries," said the Ukrainian ministry. The previous day, its Polish counterpart had called on the demonstrators to cease their action.

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