Ukrainian truck drivers stand close to a protracted line of vans as they await days on the Dorohusk border in Poland.
Claire Harbage/NPR
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Ukrainian truck drivers stand close to a protracted line of vans as they await days on the Dorohusk border in Poland.
Claire Harbage/NPR
DOROHUSK, Poland — Leszek Stasiak, who owns a small Polish trucking firm, has been manning the night time shift on the blockade of the Dorohusk border crossing with Ukraine.
It is efficient: a line of about 1,000 vans stretches again greater than 20 miles into Poland.
”It is a combat for our existence,” he says, somewhat after 9 p.m., his yellow reflective vest catching the glare from headlights of vans on the entrance of the road, ready for his approval to cross.
For 2 months, Polish truckers have been blocking visitors on the Ukraine-Poland border, holding up hundreds of vans ready to cross. They’re outraged over the European Union’s resolution to take away limits on what number of Ukrainian drivers and companies can enter Poland and the EU.
Stasiak says he’s right here as a result of his enterprise of 5 vans, which he owns together with his son, cannot compete with the inflow of Ukrainian drivers flooding the market.
Leszek Stasiak runs a small trucking enterprise in Poland. He’s a part of the truck blockade on the Poland-Ukraine border as a result of he feels their livelihoods are beneath risk with the present guidelines with Ukrainian truckers.
Claire Harbage/NPR
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Leszek Stasiak runs a small trucking enterprise in Poland. He’s a part of the truck blockade on the Poland-Ukraine border as a result of he feels their livelihoods are beneath risk with the present guidelines with Ukrainian truckers.
Claire Harbage/NPR
”Ukrainian drivers, they drive round like they’re members of the EU — like us — they usually take away our bread, they take away our work,” he says.
On at the present time, Stasiak and his fellow protesters are letting simply 5 vans cross per hour; on different days, it slows to only a trickle of two or three. In November, the primary month of the blockade, Ukraine skilled a $160 million loss in exports and imports have been down by $700 million in contrast with the earlier month.
A wartime gesture of assist has obtained sudden blowback
Earlier than the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU used a allow system to maintain the variety of Polish and Ukrainian drivers crossing their frequent border about equal. The European Union has suspended the allow system, as a approach to assist the Ukrainian financial system and assist the nation throughout wartime.
With airports in Ukraine shut down and the Black Sea mined by Russia, the land borders with Poland — the longest of its neighbors — grew to become Ukraine’s foremost connection to the European Union. The variety of vans crossing shot up, the vast majority of these being pushed by Ukrainians.
Stasiak and the opposite Polish protesters blocking the crossing say they need the allow system restored.
A person sells snacks and drinks from his bicycle to the Ukrainian truck drivers caught on the border with Poland.
Claire Harbage/NPR
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A person sells snacks and drinks from his bicycle to the Ukrainian truck drivers caught on the border with Poland.
Claire Harbage/NPR
The adjustments available in the market have Stasiak contemplating shifting his enterprise away from shifting items throughout the continent, to driving music gear for touring bands. He is just lately had a contract for the Irish dance present dance present Rhythm of the Dance.
He does not have a lot sympathy for the Ukrainian drivers ready weeks at border crossings all through Poland — which simply earlier than New 12 months’s totaled about 5,000 vans. ”That is simply the job,” Stasiak says, as he tells of his adventures driving in rural Russia and elsewhere.
Ready is nothing, he says, he is achieved loads of it in his many years of being a driver.
Behind Stasiak’s spot on the entrance of the road, away from his heated camper, the Ukrainian drivers have a a lot completely different take, particularly as temperatures drop alongside the Polish border.
”There’s a struggle happening at residence and we’re caught right here,” says Oleksandr Nekrasov, who’s from Lutsk in western Ukraine. He is been ready on the border for practically two weeks.
He and a gaggle of a few dozen males are gathered on the aspect of the highway, chatting and having a smoke. His truck, which is carrying propane headed to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, sits a brief distance away. The drivers have about 50 minutes earlier than they will want to maneuver their vans ahead, as 5 extra automobiles are allowed to advance to the crossing.
Truck driver Oleksandr Nekrasov, who’s initially from Lutsk in western Ukraine, waits close to his truck on the Dorohusk border in Poland. He has been caught on the border for practically two weeks.
Claire Harbage/NPR
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Truck driver Oleksandr Nekrasov, who’s initially from Lutsk in western Ukraine, waits close to his truck on the Dorohusk border in Poland. He has been caught on the border for practically two weeks.
Claire Harbage/NPR
”It is punishing, simply terrible,” says Nekrasov. A lot of the drivers have been ready in line for 13 or 14 days, and a few say they’re working low on meals, water and cash.
One other Ukrainian driver, Serhii Strelok, who has been ready for 14 days, opens up his cab, to point out us his residing quarters behind his seat. There is a small gasoline range, a mini-fridge, and a mattress with blankets.
He tells us drivers sleep at any time when they will as a result of nobody can depart their vans. It isn’t unusual for a driver to go to sleep on the wheel — with the truck’s engine off — inflicting different drivers — and even the police — to wake them up to allow them to inch ahead in line.
Serhii’s son, Yevgeny, who drives for a similar Ukrainian transport firm, is driving the truck instantly in entrance of his. It was not deliberate, they are saying, however being collectively in line has made a nasty state of affairs just a bit bit higher.
Ukrainian truck driver Serhii Strelok waits on the Dorohusk border in Poland to get residence to Ukraine.
Claire Harbage/NPR
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Ukrainian truck driver Serhii Strelok waits on the Dorohusk border in Poland to get residence to Ukraine.
Claire Harbage/NPR
Poland’s authorities is punting to the EU
Poland’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk, has mentioned any decision of the border blockade should come from the European Union, which lifted the allow system. He’s planning a visit to Kyiv and mentioned the blockade could be on the agenda.
In latest weeks, the protesters have additionally been assembly with the Ministry of Infrastructure, the a part of the Polish authorities that offers with transport, to attempt to resolve their complaints, although nothing has been settled.
Final week, as politicians conferred and the Ukrainian drivers waited to cross, Russia launched its largest aerial assault because the struggle started, hitting cities throughout Ukraine, and killing dozens.
The Ukrainian drivers have been following the assaults carefully on their telephones, via social media and texts with family and friends. Stanislau Kolisnyk, who’s driving a truck stuffed with metallic plates for protecting vests, pulls up a video of the aftermath of a type of assaults within the metropolis of Dnipro.
”We’re prepared to drive to those locations which can be harmful,” he says. ”I am going to drive to Dnipro to Kharkiv — to cities which can be near the entrance line. Polish drivers simply wish to cross to western Ukraine.”
The Polish protesters have a allow for the blockade, which is monitored by native police, however Kolisnyk remains to be incensed that the correct to protest can intervene so plainly with worldwide borders and commerce.
”OK, the Poles have a allow to protest. However have they got a allow to disrupt the circulate of products between two nations?” he asks.
Stasiak (left) and one other Polish protestor cease a truck at night time on the Dorohusk border in Poland.
Claire Harbage/NPR
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Stasiak (left) and one other Polish protestor cease a truck at night time on the Dorohusk border in Poland.
Claire Harbage/NPR
One other Ukrainian driver, Oleksandr Khalamendyk, has comparable sentiments. ”Go block the federal government in Warsaw,” he says, ”Go away us on the border out of it.” Some Polish drivers did strive that again within the spring, however it did not get practically as a lot consideration.
At a border crossing additional south, Polish farmers have staged one other on-again, off-again protest. Their calls for are barely completely different from the truckers and transport enterprise house owners: Amongst different calls for, they need the Polish authorities to supply subsidies for corn as a result of costs are low, partly due to elevated Ukrainian imports.
Regardless of the continuing blockade, a number of Ukrainian drivers inform NPR they plan to maintain making this journey into and out of Poland.
Khalamendyk, who’s carrying manufacturing facility elements, is only a few vans from the entrance of the road. He picked up his load in Germany after which spent 13 days ready in line right here at Dorohusk. He is pissed off, he is only some hours from his vacation spot, however he can’t cross. Possibly he’ll make it by tomorrow, he says, optimistically.
Khalamendyk has been dreaming of the new, correct meal he’ll have when he is lastly again in Ukraine. Will he do that once more, realizing he’ll have to attend this lengthy once more — or longer?
Completely, he says. ”I’ve acquired a household. I want the cash.”
NPR photographer Claire Harbage and producer Grzegorz Sokół contributed reporting.