Łukašenka outraged by Poland’s ban on Belarusian trucks

June 5, BPN. An “unprecedented attempt” made by the West in 2022 to limit the free movement of goods from Russia and Belarus, “was doomed to fail,” Alaksandr Łukašenka has told Anton Alikhanov, the governor of Russia’s Kaliningrad region, at their meeting in Minsk.

“So far, we have made a strong effort to put up with all these intrigues but they cannot go on forever,” Łukašenka ‘s press office quoted him as saying. “The leadership, I stress the leadership, of the Baltic States, and probably, Poland, should be well aware of it.”

On June 1, Poland blocked cargo transportation by trucks, trailers and semi-trailers registered in Belarus or Russia at its border checkpoints after the Belarusian Supreme Court upheld a harsh sentence against Andrej Pačobut (Poczobut), a journalist and Polish minority activist.

In February, a judge sentenced Pačobut to eight years in prison on charges widely seen as politically motivated. In response to the ruling, Poland closed the key Bobrowniki road checkpoint, one of the two road checkpoints available for travelers. In turn, Belarus restricted traffic for Polish lorries and tractor trucks.

In April 2022, the EU banned the entry and transit of trucks operated by Russian and Belarusian transport companies as a part of the fifth package of sanctions against Russia over its war with Ukraine.

However, Belarusian and Russian companies bypassed the ban by registering trucking companies in Poland.