Ukraine
Ukraine says truck traffic has been restored after suspending protests, but blockades by truckers at three other border crossings continue
Agencies
Sun Dec 24, 2023 10:37am GMT
Polish farmers have ended the blockade of a border crossing between Ukraine and Poland and truck traffic has been fully restored, the Ukrainian Border Service said.
“Truck traffic has been restored: Polish farmers have ended the blockade in front of the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing,” the service said on the messaging app Telegram on Sunday.
The service quoted the Polish border guard as saying that the protest in front of the border crossing ended at 9:30 a.m. Kyiv time (07:30 GMT) on Sunday.
“The registration and passage of trucks entering Ukraine will take place as usual,” it said.
Polish farmers said on Saturday they would end their protests at the border crossing with Ukraine from Sunday, but truck drivers would continue blockades at three other border crossings over Christmas.
Drivers have been blocking several border crossings with Ukraine since November 6, demanding that the European Union reintroduce a system under which Ukrainian companies require authorization to operate in the bloc, as well as European truck drivers operating in want to enter Ukraine.
They were later joined by farmers who demanded government subsidies for corn and no tax increases.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakow said on Thursday that Kiev hoped to reach an agreement with Poland's new government to end truck blockades at border crossings.
Ukrainian transport analysts had said that about 3,900 trucks were waiting on the Polish side for permission to enter Ukraine.
Newly appointed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last week that the new government would try to quickly end the truck drivers' protests.
A Russian bombardment killed four people and injured nine in the southern Ukrainian frontline city of Kherson within 24 hours, the region's governor said on Sunday.
Russian forces fired 71 shells into Kherson from Saturday to Sunday morning, hitting the city center, residential areas, medical and educational facilities and “critical infrastructure facilities,” Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
“As a result of Russian aggression, four people died and nine others were injured, including a child.”
Prokudin said an 87-year-old man and his 81-year-old wife were among the victims after an artillery shell hit a residential building.
Rescuers found a third male victim under rubble, he added.
Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November last year after several months of Russian occupation.
Today it is a regular target for Moscow forces stationed on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, becoming a natural frontline as the conflict intensified into a war of attrition.
Separately, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday it had intercepted all but one of the drones launched by Russia overnight.
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