Minsk, February 25 – Belarusian head of state Alexander Lukashenko said that Poland’s restriction of traffic through checkpoints on the border with Belarus is a stupid act to please Western patrons.
“It’s neither hot nor cold for us, we don’t go there. We drove to Poland or they hung a trailer on our territory and towed it. The Poles, the European Union, took the car to us, we take the trailer and drive too.” We don’t pat them on the head either. Why did they introduce it now? They want to show their importance to the sponsor who came to them recently (US President Biden – Ed.). It was necessary to show that they are “fighting” for the Americans and are ready for anything – and shot themselves in the head. Just a stupid act,” Sputnik Belarus quotes Alexander Lukashenko.
The President of Belarus noted that airlines of both Poland and other countries suffer from such decisions.
“Why do you cut off those who feed you? Kazakhstan today, especially when sanctions were imposed on hydrocarbons in Russia, supplies hydrocarbons and oil to Europe. Why did you cut them off? People have lost their jobs,” said Lukashenka.
On the initiative of the Polish side, on February 10, work at the Bobrovniki checkpoint was suspended, after which only two functioning border checkpoints remained on the Polish-Belarusian border – one for trucks, the other for cars. In response, Minsk announced that it would change the mode of movement of Polish cargo carriers: they would be able to enter and leave the territory of Belarus exclusively through the Belarusian-Polish section of the border. After that, the Polish authorities imposed restrictions on the movement of heavy trucks at the Kokoreki checkpoint from the evening of February 21, as a result, only trucks registered in the European Union and the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) are allowed to pass.
