(Korczowe) Pickup trucks and tourniquets bound for Ukrainian battlefields are among the items stuck in a line several kilometers long on the border with Poland. The arrival of components intended to build drones to combat Russian forces is weeks late.
Ukrainian charities and companies supplying the war-torn country’s military are warning that problems are getting worse as Polish truck drivers show no signs of wanting to end the month-long border blockade. Polish protesters say their livelihoods are at stake after the European Union (EU) relaxed some transport rules and Ukrainian truckers reduced their activities.
Even if the drones arrive at the front line, they will be delayed by two to three weeks, said Oleksandr Zadorozhnyi, operational director of the KOLO foundation, which helps the Ukrainian army with battlefield technology, including drones and communications equipment.
“This means that the Russian army will have the capacity to kill Ukrainian soldiers and terrorize civilians for several more weeks,” he said.
Truck drivers in Poland have blocked access roads to border crossings since November 6, creating lines that stretch more than 30 kilometers and last up to three weeks in freezing temperatures. Protesters insist they are not stopping military transports or humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
“This seems very perplexing to me, even difficult to believe, because everyone knows – those who order, those who ship and those who carry out the transport – that aid intended for the military goes through there without having to wait at all,” argued Waldemar Jaszczur, an organizer of the protest.
Polish truckers, meanwhile, say their Ukrainian counterparts are offering lower prices to transport everything from fish to luxury goods across the European Union since they were granted a temporary exemption from the country’s transport rules. bloc of 27 countries after Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Although Poland and other neighboring countries are among Ukraine’s biggest supporters in the war, resentment has grown from truckers and farmers who are losing business to Ukrainian goods and services. at lower costs that are flocking to the world’s largest trading bloc. This highlights the challenges of Ukraine’s integration into the EU if approved.
Now the trade conflict is spilling over into the battlefield, Ukrainian charities say.
About 200 vans needed to transport ammunition and evacuate the wounded from the front line are stuck at the border because “deliveries have practically stopped,” said Ivan Poberzhniak, head of procurement and logistics at Come Back Alive, Ukraine’s largest charity providing equipment to the army.
The vans are easy targets for Russia, so it is impossible to deliver enough of them even normally, he said.
When drivers show Polish truckers documents indicating that the vehicles are intended for the Ukrainian army, “it does not have a significant impact on the protesters,” Poberzhniak said.
“We must understand that in war, supplies are needed daily in all directions,” he said.
Come Back Alive says 3,000 goldeneyes are also stuck at the border. The organization was able to deliver drones, generators and batteries from what it had in stock, “but that reserve is running out,” Poberzhniak said.
The group is exploring alternative supply routes, he said, but there are few options and the Army’s unmet requests for equipment are piling up.
Although there is no quick solution in sight, a change of direction in Warsaw offers hope.
The new government is expected to be in place next week and will almost certainly be led by pro-European centrist Donald Tusk. He criticized the “inaction” of the outgoing government, giving hope to businesses affected by the blockade, but also to protesters.
The EU pressured Warsaw to find a way to end the blockade, but maintained its agreement with Kyiv. It is “beneficial for the European market, for Ukraine and Moldova,” said Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport, who also threatened sanctions against Poland.