Polish farmers to let trucks at one Ukraine border crossing pass, PAP reports

Polish farmers protesting at the Dorohusk border crossing with Ukraine will let all trucks stuck there pass through as a gesture of goodwill, a protest leader told state news agency PAP on Wednesday. Farmers in Poland and across the European Union have been calling for changes to restrictions placed on them by the EU's Green Deal plan to tackle climate change, and for the re-imposition of customs duties on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine that were waived after Russia's invasion in 2022.

Polish farmers protesting at the Dorohusk border crossing with Ukraine will let all trucks stuck there pass through as a gesture of goodwill, a protest leader told state news agency PAP on Wednesday.

Farmers in Poland and across the European Union have been calling for changes to restrictions placed on them by the EU's Green Deal plan to tackle climate change, and for the re-imposition of customs duties on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine that were waived after Russia's invasion in 2022. "It's a gesture from us to the Ukrainian drivers, so that they can go back to their families and their country, which is still in a difficult situation, in the middle of a war, having to stand up to Russia," protest leader Wojciech Los told PAP.

However, he said this did not mean an end to the protests. PAP reported that at 1200 GMT there would be a press conference at the Dorohusk crossing, after which it would be temporarily unblocked.

It was not immediately clear how long the crossing would remain unblocked. Farmers have been protesting at the border since February, following earlier disruptions by truckers. Elsewhere, Polish farmers said they would block their country's border crossing with Slovakia at Chyzne from Friday until the end of March, PAP reported. They plan to let one truck through per hour, according to the agency.

The farmers told the website Wp.pl on Tuesday that this was because they had discovered that Ukrainian and Russian agricultural products were entering Poland via Slovakia, which is also an EU state. Wp.pl reported that farmers planned to block two border crossings with Slovakia.

Last Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged to reduce a grain surplus on the domestic market at talks with farmers, but union leaders said they would press on with their protests.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)