Polish Farmers Lift Blockade at Medyka–Shehyni Border Checkpoint

Polish farmers have “completed” the blockade at the Medyka–Shehyni checkpoint and all traffic is being restored, one day after the protestors imposed blockades on passenger traffic at the same checkpoint.

At present, blockades for cargo trucks remain in place at four other checkpoints between Ukraine and Poland, namely the Yahodyn–Dorohusk, Ustyluh–Zosin, Uhryniv–Dolhobychuv and Rava-Ruska–Khrebenne checkpoints.

Col. Andriy Demchenko, spokesperson of the State Border Service of Ukraine, said Ukrainian authorities received updates on the cessation of the Medyka–Shehnyi blockade from their Polish counterparts, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda.

“Ukrainian border guards received information about this at around 9:30 p.m. the day before from representatives of the Polish Border Guard. They noted that Polish farmers had completed blocking the movement of cargo vehicles entering and leaving Poland.

“Therefore, registration of this category of transport began to be carried out in the usual manner,” said Demchenko.

A day prior, Polish protestors introduced a brief blockade on car and bus traffic at the same checkpoint between 11:10 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., where only one bus was allowed to pass either direction every two hours, as reported by the State Border Service of Ukraine.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration, raised the issue publicly with the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Marcin Kierwiński on social media. However, it is not known if Kubrakov’s comments played a role in terminating the border blockade.

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At present, 850 trucks are estimated to be queuing in Poland to enter Ukraine across the four checkpoints under blockade, with the most traffic concentrated at the Rava-Ruska–Khrebenne checkpoint.