Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński decided that freight trucks will be suspended indefinitely from crossing the border from Belarus starting June 1. Earlier on Monday, the minister decided to add 365 Belarusian officials and 20 companies with close Russian ties to the list of those sanctioned.
The decision has come in response to the decision by the Belarusian Supreme Court to uphold the sentencing of a Polish minority leader and journalist Andrzej Poczobut to eight years in a penal colony.
Monday’s decision is an extension of a suspension of trade that was imposed in February when Poczobut was originally sentenced for opposing the Lukashenko government.
The Belarusians retaliated by stopping Polish vehicles at some border crossings. As a result, Poland has decided that the only vehicles that will be admitted into Poland are those registered in the EU.
Monday’s decision by the Polish authorities removes all loopholes for Russian and Belarusian vehicles to enter Poland.
Russia has also banned Polish trucks from operating on its territory.
“We make this decision related to the problem of Russophobia that has unfolded in the territory of Poland. We are talking about the impossibility of building relationships when politicians and the leadership of Poland seize our schools, trample on graves, and demolish monuments. It is time for them to remember thanks to what state, they as a people exist today,” said Yevgeny Moskvichev, the Russian state Duma deputy.
