14.02.2016, Ukraine.
Approximately 150 Russian trucks are blocked in seven different regions of Ukraine, Deputy Director of the Association of International Road Transport Carriers Pyotr Pavlyuk told to “Russian News Service” on February 14.
The militants of extremist “Right Sector” and “Ukrainian National Self-Defense” gangs have blocked the roads in Rovno, Zhitomir, Zakarpatye, Lvov and other regions of Ukraine, preventing the passage for trucks from Russia, Pavlyuk said.
According to him, the truck drivers don’t try to negotiate with the people who block their path. “Who is there to talk to? These masked guys are just standing there and that’s it. Who is there to talk to? There is no official response yet. (…) They are ordinary citizens, they say, ‘We are from this village, from that village’. They just blocked the road and that’s it,” the deputy director of the Association said.
Ukrainian media report that the roads are blocked along almost all of the Western border of Ukraine. According to them, a total of seven regions of Ukraine participate in the blockade – Volyn, Rovno, Lvov, Zakarpatye, Ivano-Frankovsk, Zhitomir and Chernovitsk. Vinnitsk region intends to join the blockade.
The militants of extremists organizations guards the roads leading to Slovakia and on roads connecting Ukraine and Belarus.
The militants demand an official ban on movement of Russian trucks on Ukrainian territory. Earlier in February “Right Sector” demanded the government and the Parliament to ban trade of Ukraine with Russia, as well as drive out the Russian businesses from the territory of the country. The militants promised to block all large roads in Ukraine in case this doesn’t happen until the evening of February 15. The demands of “Right Sector” were supported by Zakarpatye governor Gennady Moskal.
Russian truck drivers started taking Ukrainian roads to deliver cargoes to Europe after the truck haulage between Russia and Poland stopped on February 1. This happened because the transit license terms between the two countries have expired. The countries did not manage to negotiate the new terms yet. The date of the new round of Russian-Polish talks are not defined yet.
With the situation in Poland and Ukraine, Russian truck drivers are forced to try to deliver the cargoes to Europe through Lithuania, which caused kilometers-long lines on the Belarus-Lithuania border.
