Polish farmers blocked around a hundred roads and border crossing points towards Ukraine on Tuesday morning, in particular to denounce Ukrainian agri-food imports deemed
“uncontrolled”
and to demand a review of European rules.
These actions are part of a large movement of protests by farmers across the European continent, generally making the same demands.
Dozens of tractors flocked to Ryki, 100 kilometers southeast of Warsaw, from where they set out to block the S17 expressway leading to the city of Lublin and further towards the border with Ukraine.
Farmers displayed white and red flags of Poland on their vehicles, with signs proclaiming:
“stop the uncontrolled influx of Ukrainian goods”
or
“agriculture is dying little by little”
.
“I am here so that we abandon the restrictions introduced by the European Union on fallowing, and the Green Deal, and above all so that these Ukrainian foods stop arriving,”
Tomasz Golak, owner, told AFP. of around fifteen hectares housing an animal farm and cereal fields.
“This year, wheat is selling for half the price of last year
,” he insists.
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A “total failure” of European policies
According to another farmer, Michal Magnuszewski, this is a
“total failure”
of European policies.
“How can we open the border to something that is not controlled in any way?
When we transport something abroad we go through hundreds of different checks, whereas here, nothing at all, it arrives here and that's it
,” he complains.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the blockade of the Polish border by Polish truckers and farmers demonstrated the
“erosion of solidarity”
towards his country.
This quarrel and accusations of Ukrainian
“unfair competition”
have strained relations between Kiev and Warsaw, which has been one of Ukraine's most fervent supporters since the start of the Russian invasion.
Road traffic with Poland has been crucial since the start of this war to allow Ukrainian companies to continue to export.
But this has angered Polish farmers and transport companies, who complain about Ukrainian tariffs, with which they cannot compete.