'Economic Pressure': Ukrainian Truckers Queue For Days To Enter Poland

Ukrainian trucker Oleksandr has been waiting inside his lorry to cross the border with Poland for two days, relying on a rusty electric cooker and gas cylinders from other stranded drivers for a warm meal.

He is in a long queue of trucks that line sunny fields in Ukraine's Rava Ruska up to the Polish border, with cargo truck drivers waiting for days to be allowed into the EU country.

On the other side, Polish transport companies have blocked crossings since Monday, demanding EU entry permit requirements for their Ukrainian counterparts be reinstated.

They were scrapped after Russia invaded.

Kyiv said Thursday that some 20,000 vehicles were stuck on both sides, saying the protest harms both countries -- and EU logistics routes.

"Goods go not only to Poland, they go to all European countries," Oleksandr told AFP.

The protest is the latest economic fissure between the neighbours, whose relations have suffered in recent months.

"This is just economic pressure on Ukraine," the 36-year-old said.

"It is wrong to close the border with Ukraine during the war."

Kyiv on Thursday said that while it "respects the right to protest", the obstruction was causing "losses" for both Ukraine and Poland's economy -- as well as the EU's.

The Polish protesters say they are subjected to unfair competition, claiming the scrapping of the permits led to an influx of Ukrainian competitors, hammering their profits.

But Dmytro, standing in line in Rava Ruska for four days, said many of the trucks will go through Poland in transit.

"Open the road for us and let people who are not going to Poland, but are going further, through," he told AFP.

Local Polish police told AFP there were around 500 trucks in a 40 kilometre (25 miles) long queue at the Hrebenne-Rava Ruska crossing.

"The waiting time to cross the border is approximately 160 hours," police spokesperson Malgorzata Pawlowska said.

The queue for trucks at a crossing further south in Medyka was around 55 hours long, Poland's border service estimated on its website.

Protesting Polish truckers say the competition with Ukraine is now proving too difficult to withstand.

Apart from reinstating the EU entry permits, the truckers' second biggest concern was dealing with procedures upon returning back to Poland from Ukraine.

On the Polish side, 64-year-old Jozef Stopa, a driver for a Polish transport company, is expecting his crossing into Ukraine to take days.

"There should be a port, now the port is suspended," he told AFP.

"Loaded trucks should go through another lane and those that are empty should return empty and go to load... Now everything is one queue."

But Ukrainian truckers on the other side said politics was at play.

Before the truckers, Polish farmers this summer had complained over Ukrainian competition, leading Warsaw to limit Ukrainian grain imports during the war.

Warsaw has been Kyiv's staunchest backer against Russia since Moscow's invasion in February 2022.

But relations between the neighbours took a downward turn during Poland's general election this autumn, when its governing nationalist party became embroiled in several rows with Kyiv.

"For our Ukrainian drivers, entrepreneurs and everyone else, it is clear that this is done because of politics," said driver Leonid, 58, as he ate soup behind his steering wheel.