Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Poland’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration has announced the closure of its border with Belarus for freight traffic, effective from June 1st until further notice. The decision, signed by Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Mariusz Kamiński, was published in the Official Journal on Monday. The measure specifically applies to trucks, tractor units, trailers (including semi-trailers), and vehicle combinations registered in Russia and Belarus.
This move comes in response to escalating tensions between the two countries. Earlier on Monday, Minister Kamiński added 365 representatives of the Belarusian regime, along with 20 entities and 16 entrepreneurs primarily associated with Russian capital, to the sanctions list. The decision to suspend trade traffic was prompted by the upheld eight-year prison sentence of Polish minority activist Andrzej Poczobut by the Belarusian Supreme Court on Friday.
The closure of the Polish-Belarusian road border crossing in Bobrowniki on February 18th led to Belarus imposing restrictions on Polish carriers, preventing them from using border crossings along the Belarusian-Lithuanian and Belarusian-Latvian stretches. Currently, Polish vehicles are only allowed to use the Kukuryki-Kozłowicze border crossing with the terminal in Koroszczyn, the sole operating road freight crossing between Poland and Belarus. However, in response, Poland has also limited transit through the Kukuryki crossing, permitting only vehicles registered in EU member states, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein.
The recently published regulation further tightens the restrictions on cross-border trade and significantly impacts the transportation of trailers from Belarus attached to vehicles registered in Poland or other non-EU countries. As tensions persist, the situation remains fluid, with both sides closely monitoring developments at the border.