There is no record of what the Polish truck drivers who started the blockade of Ukraine said two years later, as Russian troops started massing along the same border, though it is speculated that it included the word “kurwa”.

In my country, if you block a road on purpose, police removes you, your vehicle and your load.

The harsh conditions in the area, including sub-zero temperatures, scarce food supplies and a lack of sanitary services, have raised serious security concerns, with reports of two Ukrainian drivers having died of natural causes while lingering inside their vehicles. (Poland says only one has died so far.)

I mentioned this back when it hit the news, referenced the COVID-19-related closure of the French border with the UK at Dover around Christmas 2020. Back then, the UK had its military set up basic facilities for the stranded truckers, parked them in blocks in paved areas, set up portable toilets, sent out free catering vans with food and drink. I said that whatever else is going on, it’s kind of important to get the truckers at the Poland-Ukraine border food, water, toilet facilities and possibly heat/fuel if it gets really cold, and that’s an immediate need. I also don’t think that Ukraine’s in a great position to be pulling off a ton of military people to deal with this, so getting them into Poland at minimum and parked off the highway somewhere as much as possible (because doing toilets strung out all along the highway is gonna be a mess) seems like it’d be important.

I don’t know if that should be Poland or Frontex or whoever that handles that, but it should get done.

The blockade also needs to be resolved, but independently of that, provision of essentials should be done, doesn’t need to wait for whatever resolution is associated with that, and it shouldn’t be controversial. If the Polish truckers running the blockade have a problem with that, they need to be moved. I’m not a big fan of these “blockade the road” things, but a number of countries in Europe seem to be comparatively-accepting of them; if that’s the political situation in this part of Europe, okay. But leaving people stranded without essentials is another story.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The harsh conditions in the area, including sub-zero temperatures, scarce food supplies and a lack of sanitary services, have raised serious security concerns, with reports of two Ukrainian drivers having died of natural causes while lingering inside their vehicles.

The measure was introduced in June last year to boost the so-called “solidarity lanes,” which are meant to help Ukraine sustain its national economy and trading relations in the face of the Russian aggression.

Because Ukrainian carriers offer lower prices for their services and are not bound by EU standards, Polish truckers, who have for years enjoyed a leading position in Europe’s road transport sector, feel the situation amounts to unfair competition and demand the immediate re-imposition of the obligation to carry permits.

They also want empty trucks returning from Ukraine to be excluded from eCherha, an electronic queuing system set up by Kyiv, which protesters say creates excessive waiting times and exposes companies to economic losses.

Figures released by Poland’s Ministry of Infrastructure serve to underscore the dissatisfaction of protesters: in 2021, the year before Russia launched the war, Polish truckers had a 38% market share against 62% of their Ukrainian competitors.

Over the weekend, Poland and Ukraine struck a targeted deal to enable the movement of empty trucks by opening the Dołhobyczów-Uhryniv checkpoint and creating separate slots at the Dorohusk-Yahodyn and Korczowa-Krakovets crossings.

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