EU country to ban entry to Russian trucks

Poland is suspending freight traffic at its border crossings with Belarus, banning all trucks registered in Belarus and Russia from entering the country, according to a government order declared on May 29.

The regulation comes into force on May 30 and will be effective from midnight on June 1 until further notice. It will apply to all trucks, motor tractors, trailers, semi-trailers and long haul trucks registered in Russia or Belarus.

The document, however, does not mention whether the ban would also apply to Poland’s border crossings with Russia’s Kaliningrad region.

Poland had already closed the ‘Bobrowniki – Berestovica’ border crossing point with Belarus on February 10 and later that month restricted the movement of Russian and Belarusian heavy trucks at the checkpoint ‘Kozlovichi’.

A similar action was proposed by Russian lawmakers against Polish truckers last week. They appealed to the government to place a ban on semi-trucks registered in Poland from transiting through Russian territory and refueling at Russian prices, instead setting the cost of fuel at EU levels.

The measure was touted as a response to Poland’s openly Russophobic stance, as well as the EU’s previous restrictions against Russian truckers, which banned Russian and Belarusian road transport companies from transporting goods through the bloc’s territory.

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