By KYIV. Nov 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine has proposed to Poland to open an additional point, and possibly several, for the passage of empty freight vehicles, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said on the results of trilateral negotiations between Ukraine, Poland and the European Commission on Thursday on the air of the national telethon.
“Currently, regarding the crossing (of the Ukrainian-Polish border), the idea of opening an additional point, at least one, and perhaps several, for the passage of empty vehicles is being discussed with the Polish side. This will speed up the movement of trucks in both directions, which will help Ukrainian and Polish carriers work better,” he said.
According to the deputy minister, the vision of Ukraine and the European Commission coincides – the rally organized by Polish carriers does not meet the stated goals.
“We see facts when humanitarian supplies are not allowed through. Therefore, we are talking about a violation of basic international conventions regarding the free movement of critical goods,” Vysotsky stated and added that this argument would be made at the negotiations between the Ukrainian and Polish governments, which will take place on Saturday.
The deputy minister confirmed that the blockade of the Ukrainian-Polish border caused additional damage to Ukrainian exporters, who were forced to travel through longer bypass routes to comply with contracts for the supply of goods. It is still difficult to estimate the final amount of damage, but we are already talking about hundreds of millions of hryvnia.
“We hope that in the end this (the strike) will end and the amount of losses will not reach millions of euros,” Vysotsky concluded.
