Freight train blocked:

Polish farmers spill grain from Ukraine

Poles spill grain from Ukrainian train wagons: a video of the incident is circulating on social networks.(Bild: Screenshot/Twitter.com)

Polish farmers have opened Ukrainian freight wagons carrying grain at the Medyka border crossing, temporarily blocking the tracks on the strategically important railroad line. A group of 25 farmers ran from a demonstration on a country road onto the nearby tracks, a spokeswoman for the local police said on Tuesday.

The action was ended within a few minutes after negotiations with police officers, she said. A small amount of grain was spilled onto the tracks.

Poles sing national anthem
A video from social networks circulated on Ukrainian public television showing farmers unloading corn from several freight wagons from the neighboring country to the east and singing the Polish national anthem.

"Unauthorized interference in the operation of the railroad"
The Ukrainian railroad confirmed the incident at the Polish border station Medyka. The two opened grain wagons were destined for Germany. In total, there were around 40 Ukrainian wagons carrying agricultural goods at this station. The Polish railroad and the Ukrainian embassy in Poland had been informed "about the unauthorized interference in the operation of the railroad".

(Bild: Screenshot/Twitter.com)

Nationwide farmers' protests
The action is part of nationwide farmers' protests. They are directed against EU agricultural policy, but also against the import of cheap agricultural products from Ukraine. Farmers have been blocking the border crossings to the eastern neighboring country in Dorohusk, Hrebenne, Korczowa and Medyka for some time now. On Tuesday, they also blocked highways, traffic circles and intersections in 200 towns.

"We farmers from all over Poland were the first to extend a friendly hand and welcome our brothers from Ukraine. And now we are being harmed by them," Roman Kondrow from the initiative "The Deceived Village" told the radio station Rmf.fm. "Various mafia organizations are bringing this grain to Poland. There's no other way to put it."

We farmers from all over Poland were the first to extend a friendly hand and welcome our brothers from Ukraine. And now we are being harmed by them.

Roman Kondrow von der Initiative „Das betrogene Dorf“

Polish farmers are also complaining that the EU's Green Deal imposes new conditions on them, while grain and other agricultural products from Ukraine are being allowed onto the market, which could be produced more cheaply without these conditions.

The Foreign Ministry in Kiev called on Warsaw to stop the blockades and take action against the "anti-Ukrainian rhetoric". "There is no justification for the blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border, whatever slogans it may be accompanied by," wrote Foreign Office spokesman Oleh Nikolenko on Facebook.