A 22-kilometre-long queue of more than 1,400 trucks has accumulated at the Hungarian-Ukrainian border due to the blockage of Ukraine’s borders with Poland and Slovakia, as a result of which the vehicles were redirected to Hungarian checkpoints. This was reported by Hungarian TV channel ATV.
According to ATV, more than 1,400 lorries have piled up at the Zahony border crossing point on the Hungarian side. The queue of vehicles is about 22 kilometres long.
“Ukraine’s borders with Poland and Slovakia have been blocked by truckers for a fortnight already, so many are trying to reach our eastern neighbour from the Hungarian side,” the TV channel wrote.
Attila Gala, a spokesman for the local Hungarian police department, told the TV channel that the Zahonyi checkpoint was operating at full capacity, but despite this, the number of trucks in the queue exceeds a thousand. Some drivers have been queuing for three days already.
According to Zoltan Magyar, the former head of the checkpoint, the situation on the road is dangerous because of the fog, and several fatal accidents involving lorries have occurred in recent days.
Earlier, RMF FM radio station reported that Polish hauliers blocked the movement of lorry traffic at three checkpoints on the border with Ukraine. The protesters demanded to introduce commercial permits for Ukrainian hauliers and limit their number. A representative of the Ukrainian State Border Service, Andriy Demchenko, said on 3 December that a queue of 2.5 thousand vehicles had formed at the Polish-Ukrainian border. On the border with Poland, the Smolnitsa checkpoint and the checkpoint outside the Nizhankivychi checkpoint have suspended their work.