Unknown people again threw Ukrainian grain onto the railway on the Polish side of the border with Ukraine, local police said on Friday, AFP and Reuters reported.

“Around 08:30, we were informed that wheat spilled from two wagons of a train that stopped on the auxiliary line in the village of Okopy Kolonia near Dorohusk,” Eva Chizh, a police spokesperson in Helm, said, adding that two agents, writes Agerpres.

According to Ukrainian Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, “unknown people threw rapeseed out of three wagons with grain. The cargo was transiting through Poland to Hamburg, Germany.”

“I can only note that unpunished crimes continue to be repeated. Criminals must be immediately found and punished, so that others are not tempted to start again,” Kubrakov wrote on social networks.

Meanwhile, Polish media showed pictures of farmers blocking a road leading to Piżowice Airport in southern Poland.

This week, Polish farmers intensified their protests, blocking almost all traffic with Ukraine.

They have already dumped Ukrainian wheat on the roads and railways, gestures that caused a violent reaction in Kyiv, as well as in Warsaw.

On Thursday, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that he told the President of the European Council Charles Michel by phone that the blockade of the border by Polish farmers is “absolutely unacceptable”.

Regarding him, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that he would include checkpoints with Ukraine in the list of “critical infrastructure” in order to avoid disruptions that could affect the transportation of military and humanitarian aid.

• Polish farmers declare a complete blockade of the border with Ukraine
• Ukraine, outraged by the new actions of Polish farmers, demands a tough response from the European Commission

Polish farmers are expanding their protests, blocking a key route to Germany

After blocking border crossings with Ukraine, Polish farmers plan to block a key road on the border with Germany from Sunday as part of protests against Ukrainian grain imports and European agrarian policy.

According to the demonstrators’ plan, the blocking of the A12 highway will begin on Sunday at around 1:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. in Romania) at the Svečko intersection, the representative of the company that manages the highway said, reports the publication. German agency DPA quotes Agerpres.

Traffic in both directions will be restricted until the farmers’ protest officially ends on March 20, the local administration of the Polish city of Słubice has announced at this time. As the Slubice24 portal reports, farmers intend to block the roads with about 700 tractors, combines and other equipment, about 1,500 people will take part in Sunday’s protest near the border with Germany.

The police of the German state of Brandenburg, in turn, warned that traffic on the border with Poland would be blocked “for several days.” The A12 motorway is a key route between Berlin and Poland. German police have announced that they will stop traffic on this highway near the city of Frankfurt am Oder to avoid traffic jams and that freight traffic will be diverted to other highways.

Why are European farmers protesting?

Polish farmers and farmers from other EU countries are protesting against the restrictions imposed on them by the environmental policy included in the EU Green Deal and the free entry into the market of Ukrainian products, which are sold at reduced prices and exempted from obligations to meet European standards, these imports in particular farmers from neighboring states of Ukraine.

Despite farmers’ protests, EU ambassadors on Wednesday approved by a qualified majority the request of the European Commission to continue Ukrainian imports without restrictions to help Ukraine in the war with Russia.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, which voted against the extension, unilaterally extended the ban on imports of four Ukrainian agricultural products until September 2023, after the European Commission rejected a request by Ukraine’s neighboring EU states to extend the ban as a measure to protect farmers, which was accepted in April as part of an agreement with these three countries, as well as Romania and Bulgaria.

The new pro-European Polish government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk has maintained these restrictions imposed by the former conservative government. “We cannot sacrifice the vital and fundamental interests of large European (agricultural) groups by helping Ukraine (…) If necessary, we will take other decisions to more effectively control the flow of agri-food products from Ukraine to our border,” he said in on Friday at a joint press conference with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The latter admitted that “farmers face many problems”, but confirmed that European farmers benefit from around 22 billion euros through the common agricultural policy. She noted that the EU is making efforts to increase the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, thus responding to one of the complaints of European farmers who found that many Ukrainian agricultural products do not reach the markets where they are delivered, for example as exported to Africa and the Middle East East, and remain in the EU countries.

Demonstrations by Polish farmers caused outrage in neighboring Ukraine, which on Tuesday appealed to the European Commission for a “decisive response” to the actions of these farmers, who almost completely blocked border crossings with Ukraine, as well as about a hundred roads and dumped wagons of Ukrainians. wheat as a sign of protest against unfair competition of Ukrainian agricultural products.

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