Ukraine, Poland discuss creating 4 additional border crossings
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal discussed creating four additional crossing points on the border with Poland with his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, Shmyhal said on his Telegram channel on Jan. 22.
"We discussed the creation of four more new crossing points in addition to the current 14," Shmyhal said during a briefing with Tusk.
The Ukrainian-Polish border was fully unblocked on Jan. 16 when the blockade of the last blocked checkpoint was lifted. This followed an agreement between Warsaw and the Polish truckers, who said they would suspend their border blockade until March 1.
Crossing points are resuming their capacity after the blockade was suspended, and about 5,000 trucks have already left for Poland, Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov reported on Jan. 22.
"Our government and country remain committed to building our border infrastructure and logistics," Shmyhal told the briefing.
Shmyhal said that he and Tusk have discussed and want to introduce joint border control, exchange of databases, and continue to modernize checkpoints.
He offered Poland to consider participation in the construction of the Krakivets-Lviv-Brody-Rivne highway, adding that Polish companies could join the project on concessionary terms.
"This highway should be a continuation of the longest Polish highway, the A4, which in turn is a continuation of the German highway," he said.
Ukraine and Poland have been discussing launching a mechanism of joint customs and border control at checkpoints to increase the border capacity. A relevant draft agreement is currently under review in the Polish Infrastructure Ministry, Kubrakov said.
Nate Ostiller
