According to the Polish Ministry of the Interior, beginning on 1 June 23, Belarusian and Russian trucks and freight carriers will longer be able to cross the Polish border. The announcement reads below:
“…from midnight on June 1 (Thursday) until further notice, the border traffic of goods at border crossings with the Republic of Belarus will be suspended for trucks, tractor units, trailers, including semi-trailers, and vehicle combinations registered in the territory of the Republic of Belarus or the Russian Federation.”
On 18 February 23, Poland closed the border crossing at Bobrowniki in response to the sentencing of Poczobut, which this publication covered earlier today. In response to the closure, Belarusian authorities began inspecting only Polish trucks at Kukuryki – Koz?owicze border crossing with the terminal in Koroszczyn, the only Polish-Belarusian road freight crossing currently open. Poland then responded by limiting freight traffic through the Kukuryki – Koz?owicze crossing to only trucks registered in the European Union. However, Russian and Belarusian truck drivers then adapted by using E.U. registered trucks, towing trailers that were unregistered. Now, Poland has finally decided to cease all freight crossings of Belarusian and Russian trucks.
The majority of Polish exports to Belarus travel via road freight. In 2022, Poland exported 1.86B USD in goods to Belarus, a majority of those goods being locomotive parts. Belarus exported about 2B USD to Poland, with a majority of those goods being completed rail cars. This crossing ban is expected to significantly impact relations as well as those trade statistics.