Ukrposhta vehicles have been blocked by Polish customs for the past two months. Because of this, the company had to change the delivery of parcels and bypass Poland. This was reported by Channel 24, Ukrposhta Director Ihor Smilyansky in his Facebook post. The PromPolitInform portal writes.
“We deliver across Poland through Poczta Polska. For the past two months, Ukrposhta vehicles have been blocked by Polish customs, and we are forced to bypass… and in fact, we have redirected all our transit flows to bypass Poland,” Smilyansky noted.
According to him, during this time the company has developed other logistics routes. Now parcels are transported to Europe through two other countries:
Hungary;
and Slovakia.
In these countries, there are no issues with Ukrposhta when crossing the border.
Smilyansky added that customers did not notice any changes in the company’s work due to difficulties at Polish customs. After all, Ukrposhta managed to build alternative delivery routes.
However, of course, the company’s costs are growing, because logistics are becoming longer and, accordingly, more expensive due to high fuel prices.
The head of Ukrposhta added that problems with customs could be one of the reasons why President Volodymyr Zelensky sent his order to Poland via Nova Poshta, and not through a state-owned company.
When did the problems at customs begin
However, journalist Yevhen Plinsky said that the problems at Polish customs began long before the scandal surrounding the return of state awards. Moreover, everything happened completely suddenly.
“Polish customs simply began unloading full trucks of parcels at the border and conducting a detailed inspection of them. During such an inspection, Poles begin to cling to formal details,” the journalist said.
For example, customs officers could demand leather certificates for a pair of new shoes or veterinary certificates for a jar of honey for no reason. As a result, trucks could stand at the border for several days and then return to Ukraine.
According to him, Ukrposhta officially appealed to Polish customs, trying to find out the reason for the blockages. But received a dry answer that it complies with EU laws and has the full right to carry out inspections.
Thus, problems with Ukrposhta’s cargo transit only confirm the complication of relations between Poland and Ukraine. After disputes over Ukrainian grain and the blocking of the border by Polish carriers, the new conflict shows that even cooperation between Kyiv and Warsaw is increasingly clashing with the economic interests of the countries.
Recall that previously, tensions in trade relations between Ukraine and Poland had already arisen due to protests by Polish farmers who blocked border checkpoints and opposed the import of Ukrainian grain.
