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State Border Guard: Polish farmers completely block Medyka-Shehyni border crossing

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State Border Guard: Polish farmers completely block Medyka-Shehyni border crossing
Illustrative purposes only: Polish border road signs are seen as trucks in queue crossing the border in Medyka on Jan. 15, 2024. (Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Polish farmers have completely blocked the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing around 1 p.m. on March 1, State Border Guard spokesperson Andrii Demchenko said on national television.

"As the Polish side informed us, Polish farmers rejected to pass any trucks in the direction of Ukraine or out of it," Demchenko said.

Polish farmers started a new wave of protests in February in response to Ukrainian agricultural imports and the disagreement over the EU's Green Deal.

The ongoing protests continue to threaten Ukraine-Poland relations, as some protestors dumped Ukrainian crops and displayed anti-Ukrainian slogans.

According to Demchenko, earlier on Feb. 29, only 47 trucks passed the border in both directions.

The number of trucks crossing the border has declined at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint as well, the spokesperson added.

"Within a day, 111 trucks which were going from Poland to Ukraine crossed the border. As before, no trucks going from Ukraine to Poland were allowed to cross there. The figures of passings in the direction of Poland had been equal to zero for the last two days," Demchenko said.

Earlier on Feb. 20, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko appealed to Polish authorities to assess the legality of the ongoing blockade and to take steps against anti-Ukrainian rhetoric and actions surrounding the protests.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk rejected President Volodymyr Zelensky's proposal to meet at their countries' border to solve the ongoing blockade led by Polish farmers.

Tusk said the Polish and Ukrainian governments agreed to meet in Warsaw on March 28.

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Kateryna Hodunova

News Editor

Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

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