Protest in Poland snarls Belarus-bound trucks

Trucks headed for Belarus are backed up for 40 kilometres while they wait to reach the Koroszczyn border point as a group of protesters block the road there, Polish officials say.

According to the officials, the protesters are calling for a ban on trade with Russia and its ally Belarus.

The Ukrainians and Poles have been blocking access to the crossing — on and off for some two weeks — to pressure Moscow into ending its war on Ukraine.

The latest round of the NO Trade with Russia! protest in eastern Poland began early Saturday.

Some 950 trucks were waiting to cross into Belarus early Sunday, according to spokesman for the local tax office, Michal Derus. The waiting time was 32 hours, he said.

The road leading to the border point has been closed and the police were separating the protesters from the trucks and the drivers, road infrastructure authorities said.

The pressure of truck traffic on the Koroszczyn border point increased after Polands largest crossing into Belarus, in Kuznica, was closed in November, following border guard clashes with Middle East migrants who were trying to illegally cross into Poland, a European Union member.

Commenting on Saturdays protest, Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the EU to halt all land and sea trade with Russia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)