©Reuters. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (not pictured) during the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, February 17, 2024. Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay/Pool
(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday denounced protests by Polish farmers as a “mockery” and called for normalization of cross-border traffic, disrupting passenger and cargo traffic within and outside Ukraine. It called for a “reasonable decision” to bring it back.
Protesters in Poland declared a tighter border closure on Tuesday. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishina told the Evropeiska Pravda media outlet that talks will be held in Brussels on Tuesday to resolve related issues with European Union officials.
President Zelenskiy said the dispute over environmental and trade issues seemed absurd from the perspective of Ukraine's Kupiansk region in northeastern Ukraine, where he visited frontline areas facing difficulties due to Russian aggression in the nearly two-year war. .
“The situation is not about grain, but rather about politics,” he said in a nightly video address.
“And near Kupiansk, not far from the Russian border, where enemy artillery is constantly active, the news from the Polish border looks like a mockery. To get out of the situation we need a joint decision, a rational decision .”
Farmers in France, Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Germany are protesting the restrictions, rising costs and unfair competition from foreign countries imposed by EU climate change measures.
Polish farmers have been particularly vocal about the impact of cheap food imports from Ukraine.
Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Serhiy Derkakh said six checkpoints were closed on the Polish side of the border, and movement had been completely halted at the Yakodin-Drokhask checkpoint. No humanitarian aid or fuel arrived.
“This has a direct impact on our defense capabilities,” he wrote on Facebook (NASDAQ:).
Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubarkov said in a statement on Facebook that online video footage showed demonstrators blocking a bus carrying passengers. He was meeting with Poland's national security chief, Jacek Siewiera.
Ukrainian Railways reported that trains were operating normally across the border a day after police and railway officials lifted a blockade that had halted one cross-border train.
Poland's Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekielski said this month that he understood the challenges facing farmers but wanted protests to be organized in a way that was “the least burdensome for the people.”
The Peasants' Solidarity Union announced plans to close roads across Poland intermittently until March 10, similar to the closure of border crossings in Ukraine.
