Ukrainska Pravda: Poland increases trade with Russia through Belarus

Ukraine/Poland (Svidomi) — The Ukrainska Pravda media outlet has published an investigation into trade between Poland and Russia via Belarus. The day before, Polish law enforcement officers detained investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach and deleted part of the footage. 

Following the journalists' request, a man who introduced himself as the manager of a Belarusian company called the Polish company Agrolok. He offered to buy rapeseed meal from Russia under Belarusian documents.

The manager of the Polish company asked to send the supply terms via email.

In September 2023, following farmers' protests, Poland banned the import of rapeseed meal from Ukraine. Mykhailo Tkach notes that Poles bought almost eight million dollars worth of rapeseed meal through Belarus in the three months after the ban was imposed. 

Near the Kukuryki checkpoint on the Polish-Belarusian border, Tkach saw hundreds of trucks entering Poland from Belarus without any obstacles. There were no protesters at the checkpoint.

The investigators found that Russian agricultural products first go to Belarus, where they are loaded onto Polish trucks in special centres. Then the trucks go to Poland to large companies.

At least three companies in Poland are the largest buyers of agricultural products from Russia: Bromex, Diaspolis and Kampol Krzysztof Łużniak.

On February 29, Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk said that the country does not rule out a ban on agricultural products from Russia.

According to him, agricultural products from Russia and Belarus also cause problems in the market.

"Latvia decided to implement an embargo on the import of agricultural products from Russia ( the products that remain in Latvia, not those that transit the country — ed.) We will analyse the case of Latvia, and I do not rule out that Poland will take an appropriate initiative," he said.

It will be recalled that Polish law enforcement officers detained Mykhailo Tkach and a cameraman from Ukrainska Pravda near the border with Belarus while working on the investigation. They had been detained for at least four hours, and the police spoke only Polish (in the commandant's office - in English). Law enforcement officers removed memory cards from the cameras. After the journalists got their memory cards back, it turned out that part of the video footage had been deleted.