Some Poles aren’t happy with the favorable treatment their government is giving Ukraine, and are making their voices heard.
An ongoing border blockade by Polish truckers, in which thousands of truckers have reportedly been stuck in cold weather for days, is impeding the delivery of military and humanitarian goods to Ukraine, according to Russia Today (RT).
The protest, which began back on November 6, is in opposition to the European Union’s exemption of Ukrainian truckers from needing permits to get across the border. The Polish truckers argue that relaxing the rules for Ukrainians has resulted in unfair competition and driven down prices, making it difficult for the Poles to compete.
One Ukrainian volunteer, Boris Miroshnykov, said in a Telegram post on Tuesday that “right now, thousands of vans with critical imports — fuel, drones, thermal imagers, medical goods, etc. — are being blocked at the Polish border,” adding that “humanitarian cargoes do not pass either.”
Miroshnykov blasted the Polish truckers, describing the effect that the border protest could have on Ukraine as comparable to a naval blockade by the Russian military. “Warsaw will not voluntarily help with the solution of the issue,” he lamented.
Vasily Zvarych, the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, wrote to the Polish foreign ministry on Friday, urging an immediate unblocking of the border. To further his demand, he cited reports that two Ukrainian truckers have died while waiting in the border crossing queue.
“It is extremely important to save lives, stop the blocking of motor vehicles and give drivers the opportunity to return home without hindrance,” Ukraine’s embassy in Warsaw declared, per the Financial Times.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Pravda newspaper shared statistics from the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, which claims that the country has experienced more than $437 million worth of losses as a direct result of the blockade on the frontier. Per the organization’s calculations, every day that the Polish truckers protest costs Ukrainian companies an average of €25,400 ($27,700) per firm.
RT further reported of the developing situation:
Vladimir Balin, vice president of the Association of International Road Haulers of Ukraine, described the situation as “really critical” at a briefing in Kiev.
According to Andrey Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service (SBGS), as of Monday morning there were approximately 2,900 trucks waiting at Polish-Ukrainian border crossings.
Also on Monday, Ukraine’s deputy minister for infrastructure, Sergey Derkach, claimed in a Facebook post that Polish protestors were blocking multiple fuel tankers and humanitarian trucks.
Officials in Kiev have warned that the continuation of the strike could see prices in Ukraine rise by as much as 10%.
As Ukrainian hopes of a rapid end to the protest wane, Kiev says it is preparing to evacuate its truckers.
Leonid Kostiuchenko, president of the Ukrainian Association of International Carriers (the top truckers union in Ukraine), wasn’t pleased by his discussion with the protesters’ leader, telling Reuters that “the more we talk to them the less hope we have.”
“I spoke to the leader of the protesters and his attitude is that we will block for such a long time that you will… celebrate New Year in a queue. I don’t understand this humour,” Kostiuchenko added.
And the situation may only worsen now that truckers in neighboring Slovakia have also temporarily blocked their border with Ukraine.
The organized mass protest by Polish truckers, an effort to pressure the government into ending a policy that has greatly hurt the truckers economically, is reminiscent of 2022’s Canadian Freedom Convoy, in which hundreds of vehicles and thousands of pedestrians jammed up the capital city of Ottawa to protest the cross-border Covid-19 vaccine mandate targeting truckers.
Both movements demonstrate the power of nonviolent civil resistance, applying pressure while denying the government the ability to respond forcefully by remaining peaceful. And both trucker protests also show the power of economic pressure in realizing political change.
In the modern economy, truckers play a crucial logistical role; without them, the population of most communities would starve. In a society in which only two percent of the people are engaged in farming, those involved in transporting the food from agricultural areas to non-agricultural areas wield enormous economic power — and, by consequence, political power.
The vital role of truckers is another reason governmental authorities cannot respond as forcefully to the current Polish border protest as they would like. Driving big rigs is a skill that requires significant startup capital and time dedication to develop. The government knows it cannot simply roll in, guns blazing, to put all of these truckers in prison. Doing so would remove these key individuals, along with their vehicles and cargo, from the economy — causing enormous damage to the Polish economy.
Moreover, even if such a course were taken, removing the thousands of trucks from the border without the participation of the skilled truckers who have been trained to drive them would be a logistical nightmare.
Patriots combating tyranny in every part of the world should take note and realize that We the People hold more power than the globalists would like us to believe.
