"Poland has taken us hostage": report from border checkpoint where Ukrainian grain was spilled

Since November last year, Poles have been organizing blockades on the border with Ukraine. They were started by carriers, and now farmers have taken up the cause. On February 19, they blocked six checkpoints.

The economic demands of the strikers are as follows: to ban the import of Ukrainian agricultural products; not to implement the "green transition" under the EU program, which involves reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers; and to receive additional subsidies for domestic livestock.

We traveled to the site of the blockade to talk to Polish protesters and blocked Ukrainian drivers.

"We are protesting because our Polish market is flooded with Ukrainian products"

I get to the border by the Wrocław - Przemyśl train. My destination is the Medyka checkpoint, which was blocked on February 16. There are 700 Ukrainian trucks waiting in line. I am picked up by Ukrainian volunteers who help the drivers with humanitarian aid: they give them food, water, medicine, and other necessities.

First, we approach the Polish protesters. On the way, we pass dozens of trucks parked on the side of the road, which I notice 5 km away from the checkpoint. There is no parking nearby, so the drivers park on the roadside.

We park near the protesters' meeting pint. They have placed a metal container over the road for their needs and made a tent, under which they have set up an improvized kitchen. There is a grill on which they fry food. Next to it is a barrel into which they throw firewood: this is how the Poles keep warm. The volunteers call for someone who could comment on the situation.

Roman Kondrów, a Polish farmer, agrees to talk:

"We are protesting because our Polish market is flooded with Ukrainian products. We want this situation to be resolved between Poland and Ukraine. We want to stop corn and wheat from coming to Poland in such large quantities. Our farmers can't sell many products now because Ukrainian ones have pushed them out. We are ready to help Ukraine, as we have been doing. But it's not ordinary Ukrainians who will benefit from this situation, but large agricultural holdings. Ukraine, Brussels, and Poland should sit down at the negotiating table to solve the problem."

I ask about the situation with the spilled grain. He replies that he is not aware of the situation and does not know who did it.

I ask to speak to one of the Polish farmers. Roman Kondrów takes me to the road where the protesters are going back and forth to keep the Ukrainian trucks out. There are about two dozen of them. Some of them are warming themselves by a barrel, and there is scattered firewood nearby. Some are smoking cigarettes, others are on their phones.

Jan Werdega is the most active.

"We don't mind if Ukrainian goods transit through Poland, and the grain doesn't settle in Poland. Because it's ruining us."

The road is separated from the roadside by a fence with posters calling for a stop to the influx of Ukrainian goods and grain into Poland. A large tractor is parked next to it. Farmers have recently blocked roads in all Polish cities with tractors like this as part of the protest.

"In fact, entire European and American markets are being lost"

Oleksiy Kermach is traveling from Ukraine through Poland to Germany in transit. He is carrying apple juice there. He owns a company with 10 trucks. I meet him near the Polish protesters, and he talks to them, because he is traveling to Ukraine, not the other way around.

"The guys, Polish protesters, most of them, don't understand what they are doing here. I think they have been deceived. It's unlikely that anyone will hear them through such methods. As for us, we are simply losing. We suffer big losses, and there is no point in talking about profits. I can't complete a single trip in one month. When you leave Ukraine, you stand in line for a day or two. When you return, you can get stuck in Poland for a fortnight. With these strikes, we haven't been working for six months, and we're doing it because we have to. Due to the lack of profit, we cannot upgrade our fleet, pay the right salaries to drivers and logisticians. I have not personally fired any of my employees. Everyone is working, but in smaller volumes. My company is based in Kharkiv, and we used to work in Melitopol. Now we work on the road, we don't even have our own base. We just travel. Previously, we could make three of four trips. So how many times less is our income now? But the problem is much more global. In fact, we are losing entire European and American markets to which we simply do not deliver products. And someone else is working well and taking our place. What can we say about the end consumer, who looks askance at the Ukrainian carrier because they received the products late. Because the pace of delivery has slowed down. Money is not circulating, it is frozen, this is 'long' money that should be working for the benefit of the economies of many countries."

"Farmers have no say here. Decisions are made in big offices"

Three Ukrainian drivers are talking at the edge of the line that formed right behind the Polish protesters. Behind them is a field of rapeseed. I ask Serhiy Ilchenko how things are going. As he speaks, he twists his glasses in his hands. He says he has to deliver wheels for a car to Ukraine.

"In these conditions, not very well. There are no proper toilets, no water. We turn to the police, but they don't care about us, they keep order here, they have finished their shift and are happy. It's good that we have a slow cooker in the truck, it helps. The work of truckers is hard, we have spartan conditions. But normally, we spend the night at paid parking lots where we can wash or eat in a cafe. Here we have to walk to a shop 500 meters away."

It's afternoon now. Most drivers are taking a nap in their trucks, watching movies on their gadgets or reading the news. Yuriy (he does not give his last name) came out to get some fresh air.

"We are hostages here. Today we approached the Poles to protest. Their senior tried to calm us down. It turned out to be a futile meeting. And the police, of course, are behind them. Sometimes, they are rude and call us names. On a global scale, I cannot understand Europe at all. They are deliberately blocking Ukraine's economy."

"This all has a political basis. I stood here the same way before the New Year, for 11 days. We tried to prove something then and now. It was pointless. Because, in fact, these protesters are supported by their government. Otherwise, they would have done something by now. Farmers have no say here. Decisions are made in big offices. Our government cannot be understood either. I've been here for six days and haven't seen a single representative from our country. I wish someone would come and say something to the people. Thank God, [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy spoke today, saying that the issue should be resolved. But it doesn't make it any easier for us. But should Zelenskyy himself work on this front? There are a lot of other officials in power."

Spilled grain

A few days ago, near the Medyka checkpoint, one of the protesters spilled Ukrainian grain from railroad cars onto the ground and trampled it with his feet. A tractor was also driving down the road, with drivers standing on the side of it, calling on Vladimir Putin to deal with Brussels.

"This is how it all started [in Ukraine] when some regions asked for troops. And he did," Yuriy continues. "And as for the grain: f*ck, how did you contribute to that grain? Did you collect it from a field that is being shelled? What right do you have to dump it on the ground?"

Oleksandr joins the conversation. He is carrying diplomatic mail. He is nervous because the cargo is important, and he is under pressure from clients in Ukraine. He has repeatedly appealed to the Polish police and protesters to let him through without queuing.

"They wanted to send me to the parking lot right away, saying they would sort it out somehow, but it's been a day without any progress. I have cargo for the American, Turkish, and Finnish embassies. I believe that Poland has taken us hostage. Why? A Ukrainian driver buys fuel, food, pays for roads in Poland – we pay our way as carriers."

Yevhen Kutnyi, who has just approached, sees a Russian trace in the situation.

"This Rafał (owner of the logistics company Rafał Mekler Transport and the Lublin branch of the Confederation of Freedom and Independence party - ed.) from the Confederation, who is muddying the waters, is a man paid by Russia. Everyone knows this." 

On the horizon, where the line starts, we see a Polish policeman. One of the drivers, Bohdan, quickly walks toward his vehicle.

"I am wary of them. They think I'm too active. Why? Because I started raising the issue of letting trucks pass without queues. There are Polish trucks here with us, and it has happened more than once that they have gone ahead of us. Yesterday, the police put pressure on me and came to talk to me."

Hearing this, all the drivers who had spoken to me went back to their trucks.

After the Ukrainian consul in Lublin, Vasyl Yordan, arrives at the Korczowa checkpoint, 40 kilometers from Medyka, the drivers get hopeful. There are about 1,700 trucks in line at Korczowa. The consul promises that the situation will change on February 23, as Polish farmers plan to move the protest site and unblock the border crossings with Ukraine.

Author: Olha Vyshnevska