Investigation: Polish trucks ship Russian agricultural products to Poland from Belarus

A sign points to the border between Poland and Belarus; in the background is a vehicle belonging to the Polish border guards. (Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Polish trucks ship Russian agricultural goods to Poland from Belarus, with the volume of these shipments increasing, according to an investigation by Ukrainska Pravda published on Feb. 29.

The story comes amid widespread protests in Poland against agricultural imports from Ukraine, a country currently facing a full-scale Russian invasion with Belarus' support.

While agricultural trade with Russia or Belarus is not prohibited or sanctioned in the EU, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk recently said that Warsaw would consider banning food imports from Russia, following Latvia's example.

Ukrainska Pravda's journalist Mykhailo Tkach, who was briefly detained by Polish authorities while filming the story near the Polish-Belarusian border, said that "in just three months after the introduction of the ban on Ukrainian products, the Poles purchased almost $8 million worth of rapeseed meal through Belarus."

The outlet said that based on communication with representatives of Polish agricultural companies, Russian products first go to Belarus, where they are loaded onto Polish-registered trucks and then shipped to Poland.

According to Ukrainska Pravda's undisclosed sources and data from open and closed databases, the three largest Polish companies that buy Russian agricultural products are Bromex, Diaspolis, and Kampol Kryzstof Luzniak, the outlet wrote.

Read also: Opinion: Putin’s silk road around sanctions