Protesting farmers from Poland stopped a passenger bus from Ukraine and allegedly handcuffed a passenger who claimed to be an Israeli citizen, with the parties involved exchanging verbal abuses in different languages.
A protestor could be heard shouting: “We don’t want you here, kurwa,” the latter being a common insult in Polish with different derogative meanings.
In a video circulating on social media, a tractor could be seen stopping in front of a passenger bus where multiple insults could be heard.
In the description, it was said the incident took place at the Rava-Ruska-Khrebenne checkpoint, where an Israeli citizen was reportedly handcuffed and taken elsewhere as he shouted that he was late for a flight.
Kyiv Post is unable to independently verify the details surrounding the incident.
This is the latest escalation at the border between the two nations as Polish farmers demand restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural imports, which they said have flooded the market and drove down local prices.
On Feb. 20, protesters escalated actions across the country and introduced blockades on all checkpoints with Ukraine, including passenger traffic.
The escalation has also led to several clashes, where protesters dumped Ukrainian grain on railway tracks in one incident. Pro-Russian elements were also seen displayed on a tractor – to which Polish authorities said they had initiated an investigation.
A recent Kyiv Post report provided more context on the protests, which have been taking place intermittently since November 2023.
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Donald Tusk, prime minister of Poland, has said that “several thousand people” were to blame for “[taking] advantage of by engaging in unfair and unequal competition” after his first visit to Kyiv, casting blame on private individuals who exploited the EU’s softening restrictions on Ukrainian exports following Russia’s invasion.
Officials from Ukraine and Poland said they are actively trying to resolve the issue, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announcing on Telegram that he analyzed the situation and determined the next steps with government officials and that actions will be taken shortly, without further elaboration.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, in an interview with Ukrainian Radio, said that active discussions with farmers are taking place to de-escalate the situation, but it is not Warsaw’s decision to lift the blockade.
“But this blocking of the border is not the decision of the Polish government, this is not the decision of any Polish government. This is just a decision made by farmers, farmer organizations,” said Duda, adding that Russia’s invasion is ultimately to blame.
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Comments (3)
@Mario, Hi folks. Just letting your know that poster Mario below is not Polish. It's just another russian troll pretending to be Polish to try to cause further dissent.
There is a little technical trick that I have discovered in their Kyvpost comments which reveals this. It's actually something the organized trolls have been doing lately with their text encoding to stop some regular Ukraine supporters from posting directly underneath their generally inflammatory and always misleading posts. We can still post at the root level though (as I am here).
So take heart Ukrainians. Troll "Mario's" post, as with the recent disproportionate putin manipulated polish trucker over reaction, are just more of the same putin hybrid war crap.
I will test some of the other Ukraine negative commenters shortly.
The vast majority of Polish people and their leadership best realize the disaster putin winning in Ukraine would represent for their county. They know they share a common enemy with Ukraine and that both coutires are stronger workmen together.
This will all sort out. Ukraine will win.
This protests need to be shut down. It is getting out of control and criminal acts are now going on.
You can thank for that zelensky who did absolutely nothing to fix the problem. Many Poles are very dissapoined by the way zelensky is acting towards Poland, as Poland was one of the first countries that started helping Ukraine in 2022.
@PATRIOT, Are you polish living in Poland? If not, how do you have an idea what so ever what Poles feel about Zelensky. Seems to me the problem is selfish polish farmers that decide to break the laws in their own country because they do not want to pay even the most modest price to save Ukraine and thus eventually themselves. You really need to stop your constant dumping on Ukraine and if you do not like Ukraine and it's leader then maybe you should move to Russia, if in fact you are not already there:)
@Lobo,
I am Pole living in Poland and yes. People remember Zalensky speech an UN and WTO lawsuit. People also remember how Polish truckers were
treated by Ukraine and why they started protest in November.
"Seems to me the problem is selfish polish farmers "
So mayby you should not jump just into assumption, learn facts and start realizing that Ukraine is also able to play dirty games against Poland here.
@Mario, I can always identify a russian troll by how I cannot post directly beneath their comments. I'm not sure how they prevent that for solely my account (others seem to be able too), but none the less they seem to be able to prevent mine post from being placed there....its ubiquitous across all long term trolls (regardless of their stated name) on this forum. So instead each time I need to copy / paste my troll response back to the root level in the comment section.
In contrast I can however always post directly below any Ukraine supporter.
I'm going to test now with "MARIO's" comment as it just smacks of the kind of response former russian trolls attempt on this forum to shut down Ukraine supporters. I will then try the same for poster " "Patriot" new
If this message is reposted at the root level you know MARIO is just another lying russian troll.
@Lobo, you may or may not agree with Patriot and other comments, but I can confirm, as a Pole, living in Poland, that Zelensky's UN Speech was very harmful for Poles, and widely commented among society. This was kind of a turning point, where Poles realized that Ukrainian politicians do not view Poland as a partner state, but rather as some weird country that should just transfer money and arms. This allowed some organizations or farmers to oppose Ukrainian policies more openly.
@PATRIOT, You know I noticed he did nothing. I wondered if he was on overload. Well he is now so we will see if this can be resolved as criminals acts are now happening. Crimes are not acceptable period.
@PATRIOT, test post.