Ukraine border blockade persists, Russia vote plan criticized

A month-long blockade by Polish truck drivers at the Ukrainian border is delaying deliveries of battlefront necessities — and there is no end in sight for the dispute.

Truckers started blocking roads to border crossings on Nov. 6, creating lines stretching nearly 20 miles and lasting weeks in freezing temperatures, and hindering the transport of pickup trucks, tourniquets, night vision equipment, drone parts and other materials and medical supplies.

The Polish drivers are protesting competition from Ukrainian counterparts, who they say are undercutting their business amid relaxed European Union transport rules.

“This means that the Russian army will have the ability to kill Ukrainian soldiers and terrorize civilians for several weeks longer,” said Oleksandr Zadorozhnyi, operational director of the KOLO foundation, which assists the Ukrainian army with technology and is unable to get materials through.

Protestors deny holding up aid, according to reports, and the head of a truckers’ association in western Poland said there is no light at the end of the tunnel as authorities are paying little attention.

As the war wages on, Ukrainian authorities are also fighting plans for voting to take place in illegally annexed territories in the planned Russian election in March. The balloting could keep Russian President Vladimir Putin in power until at least 2030.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry is calling on the international community to impose sanctions on those involved with the election.

Separately, Ukraine continued its effort to eliminate Russian influence on the homefront with its campaign to remove Soviet-era monuments. A statue of a Soviet field commander of the Russian Civil War was removed Saturday as “decommunization” efforts have been revamped ahead of the war’s two-year mark.

With Post wires