Border anger undermines Polish-Ukrainian alliance (2024)

DOROHUSK, Poland — Poland and Ukraine have a common enemy, but you wouldn't know it from what's happening on the Dorohusk-Yagodyn border crossing.

The Polish side of the frontier is blocked by several dozen Polish farmers, many holding red-and-white flags. They're protesting what they say is a flood of Ukrainian grain and other produce following liberalization of trade brought in by the EU as a response to Russia's full-scale invasion.

"We have to close the border. Am I supposed die of hunger because they are at war?" asked Ździsław Dąbrowski, a farmer with a 30-hectare smallholding who has joined the demonstration. The protesters are only letting two trucks an hour pass into Ukraine and none in the other direction.

That's caused an 11.5-kilometer-long line on the Polish side of mainly Ukrainian trucks waiting to get home.

Volodymyr has been stuck since Feb. 9. He's carrying boxes from Germany used to package orange juice needed by a factory in Odesa.

"Without those boxes the factory is standing," he said, leaning down from the window of his sky-blue truck. "They are calling me all the time. I've been on the road for 22 days."

It's the same situation at every road border crossing between Poland and Ukraine — and the stresses caused by the strikes are fraying relations between Warsaw and Kyiv.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, a deputy prime minister of Ukraine and its infrastructure minister, said on Sunday that 160 tons of Ukrainian grain had been illegally dumped from rail cars in Poland as they were traveling to the port of Gdańsk — the fourth such incident.

"How long will the government and the Polish police allow this vandalism to continue?" he tweeted. "Once again, all these agricultural products are transported in sealed railcars and are in transit to other countries. We are strictly following the law. And you?"

Failure to communicate

The two governments are due to meet in Warsaw on Wednesday; Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk refused to meet Friday with a Ukrainian government delegation headed by PM Denys Shmyhal which traveled to the Korczowa-Krakovets crossing to try to resolve the crisis.

Shmyhal told Polish farmers that no Ukrainian grain has been imported into Poland since September and that any grain that crosses the border goes to other countries. “Poles and Polish farmers need to hear this truth in order to understand the senselessness of the border blockade,” he said.

Ukrainian farmers brought equipment damaged by Russian land mines to the crossing to show Polish farmers the conditions under which they have to work.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy laid out the stakes on Sunday.

"As president, I say openly that it is very important for us to maintain our alliance with Poland. And if steps are not taken, then we will defend our businesses," he said.

The border is an existential issue for Ukraine. That's how it's getting arms and ammunition — much of which comes via rail — and how it's able to keep its battered economy functioning.

But the Polish farmers say the issue is also crucial to them. They denounce the EU for allowing in Ukrainian grain — which is blocked from the domestic market by Poland in violation of EU rules.

The EU's decision to assist Ukraine to export its goods via so-called solidarity lanes through countries such as Poland, Romania and Hungary helped stabilize grain and oilseed prices in the EU, but it also meant that traders and processors in those countries jumped at the chance to buy the cheap produce rather than help export it further.

Farmers in areas immediately bordering Ukraine saw their own grain silos fill and prices plummet. Governments, including Poland's, responded by blocking their domestic markets.

"How are we supposed to compete? They have huge foreign companies in Ukraine," complained Marcin Bolesta, who has a 20-hectare farm in Poland's eastern Podlaskie region. "It's hard to keep our families going. We have loans. How are we supposed to repay them? We don't want any Ukrainian wheat to cross. What they are sending is poisonous. It's not even fit for cattle feed."

It has become commonplace in Poland to question whether Ukrainian produce meets EU standards, even though evidence to support those claims is lacking. Even Deputy Agriculture Minister Michał Kołodziejczak — himself a farming activist —has carried out personal inspections of Ukrainian grain at the border in recent weeks after questioning their quality.

The Polish protests are about more than Ukraine. The farmers are also angry about the EU Green Deal, which they say will saddle them with additional costs. They point to an EU requirement that 4 percent of land be left fallow, although Brussels has delayed imposing of that rule, so no one has actually been affected.

"So far nothing has changed, but we want it all thrown in the trash," said Dąbrowski.

Unbalanced trade

Some demonstrators are also calling for the border to be closed to other goods from Ukraine like cement; imports have jumped from 51,000 tons in 2021 to 340,000 tons last year.

But cement is a rare bright spot for Ukraine's trade with Poland.

Last year, Poland exported 51.6 billion złoty (€12 billion) of goods to Ukraine, a 13.6 percent increase over 2022. Meanwhile, Ukrainian exports to Poland fell by 23 percent to 20.2 billion złoty, according to Poland's statistical agency.

The ongoing farmer protests follow strikes at the end of last year by truckers complaining about unfair competition from their Ukrainian rivals.

But politicians in Warsaw, as in most other countries, are finely attuned to the complaints of farmers —especially as the country is counting down to local elections on April 7 that will be a test of strength for Tusk's ruling alliance that won power last fall.

The four parties making up Tusk's governing coalition each want to do well, and they have the combined goal of once again defeating the Law and Justice (PiS) party that lost October's parliamentary election.

Although only 7 percent of Poles are farmers, about 40 percent of the population lives in the countryside, making rural views crucial politically.

The danger could be seen at the Dorohusk crossing, where the farmers stuffed an effigy of Kołodziejczak, the deputy agriculture minister, into a wheelchair near the campfire burning in the middle of the road.

Tusk has been very careful not to anger the farmers, refusing to use force to disperse the protests and open the border.

"The farmers' protest, and I want to make this very clear, has its own deep justification," Tusk said on Friday.

Meanwhile, President Andrzej Duda, a PiS loyalist, said in a TV interview: "In my view, the farmers are right."

The political caution is reflected in Polish opinion polls that shows a cooling of enthusiasm toward Ukraine. Two years ago, only 17 percent of Poles said they wouldn't help Ukrainian refugees; that rose to 34 percent last year and is now at 41 percent, according to a survey by the Openfield organization.

The mood is also souring in Kyiv. The number of Ukrainians who see Poland as a friendly country fell from 94 percent last year to 79 percent in the latest survey by Ukraine's Rating Group.

The political machinations in Warsaw cut little ice with Kyiv and with the truckers cooling their heels waiting to cross at Dorohusk, around a three-hour drive away from Warsaw to the southeast.

"Our economy is collapsing. All the goods that should be helping the economy are stuck at the border. All of these trucks are filled with goods bought in the European Union," said Volodymyr, who did not want to give his last name. "The Russians are murdering us and this is terrorism against us."

Oleksandr, who has been stuck for 17 days with a load of nuts from Holland for a candy factory in Ukraine, was fuming.

"Those strikers are dicks," he said. "We're struck here. I haven't washed in weeks. I stink. I have to sh*t in the field over there. I thought we were friends with Poland, but this is a knife in our backs."