Poles protested at three border crossings, now they would extend the closure to a fourth.
Local farmers have also joined the Polish truckers' strike on the Ukrainian border, and a fourth crossing would be closed in the action, which could endanger the humanitarian assistance of the war-torn country, reports Bloomberg .
Due to the blockade that started two weeks ago, more than 20,000 vehicles were stranded on both sides of the border, and the Kyiv authorities had to provide assistance in evacuating the drivers.
Truckers from Poland and several eastern EU member states began protesting after temporary concessions following the Russian invasion created unfair competition for Ukraine.
The current tensions arose due to grain shipments from Ukraine, which caused Poland and Hungary to introduce a unilateral import ban at the beginning of the year.
Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, Czech and Lithuanian members of the International Road Transport Association
Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, was called on in a letter to review the expiring trade liberalization agreement with Ukraine.
The EU's executive body has said that reintroducing road transport permits or quotas from Ukraine is not legally possible as it would violate the current agreement between the EU and Kyiv. Currently, Ukrainian carriers can transport goods without permits.
After his visit to the border, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Serhiy Derkach announced on Monday that two crossers were practically taken hostage by the protesters.
"It is clear that safeguards for unhindered access for humanitarian aid and dangerous cargo are currently not being met.
In several cases, there were queues for fuel tanks and humanitarian aid.
We have forwarded this information to our Polish colleagues and are awaiting their response."
Derkach said.
Featured image: MTI/EPA/Dumitru Doru
