Russian Attacks Cause 40-Hour Border Queues at Ukraine-Poland Crossings

Air raid alerts triggered by Russian attacks on Ukrainian regions near the Polish border have brought traffic at key crossing points to a near standstill, with waiting times reaching up to 40 hours at some checkpoints in Poland's Lublin region.

According to Michal Derus from the Lublin Tax Administration, several overnight air raid bomb alerts forced temporary halts to vehicle processing at the crossings. 'During several hours at night we had nine bomb attack signals. Several more came in the morning. This causes temporary suspension of cargo transport processing, but also of private vehicle and bus traffic,' he explained.

At the Dorohusk crossing point, the queue for customs clearance reached 40 hours. At Hrebenne, vehicles were waiting more than 24 hours, while the wait at Zosin stood at eight hours. Customs data showed 880 trucks waiting at Hrebenne and 250 at Zosin.

The day before, on October 16 during daylight hours, a warning about danger was declared in one Polish region due to Russian attacks on nearby Ukrainian territory. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk previously disclosed that during one Russian attack near the Ukrainian-Polish border, evacuations had to be carried out at two border crossing points.

The disruptions add to growing humanitarian and logistical pressure on Ukraine's western border as Russian forces continue striking infrastructure across the country.