Protest in Poland snarls Belarus-bound trucks

    Warsaw, Mar 20 (AP) — Trucks headed for Belarus are backed up for 40 kilometres while they wait to reach the Koroszczyn border point as a group of protesters block the road there, Polish officials say.
     According to the officials, the protesters are calling for a ban on trade with Russia and its ally Belarus.
     The Ukrainians and Poles have been blocking access to the crossing -- on and off for some two weeks -- to pressure Moscow into ending its war on Ukraine.
     The latest round of the “NO Trade with Russia!” protest in eastern Poland began early Saturday.
     Some 950 trucks were waiting to cross into Belarus early Sunday, according to spokesman for the local tax office, Michal Derus. The waiting time was 32 hours, he said.
     The road leading to the border point has been closed and the police were separating the protesters from the trucks and the drivers, road infrastructure authorities said.
     The pressure of truck traffic on the Koroszczyn border point increased after Poland's largest crossing into Belarus, in Kuznica, was closed in November, following border guard clashes with Middle East migrants who were trying to illegally cross into Poland, a European Union member.
     Commenting on Saturday's protest, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the EU to halt all land and sea trade with Russia. (AP) PY
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)