Journalists are outraged that everything happened against the backdrop of blocking the Ukrainian border by Polish farmers.

In Poland, law enforcement officers detained a Ukrainian film crew near the Polish-Belarusian border. As Ukrayinska Pravda writes, its journalists made material about the transit of goods across the borders of Poland with Russia and Belarus.

Journalist Mikhail Tkach said that he and his cameraman were near the Polish-Belarusian border when Polish police drove up to them and showed them a badge.

“We showed our documents and journalistic IDs. They began to grab our cameras and search them. Then they brought us to the commandant’s office. About 10 people began to search our car, us, threw our things on the hood, took all the memory cards from the cameras, took all our phones, documents,” says Tkach.

“Ukrainian Pravda” notes that at the Polish commandant’s office, Ukrainians were interrogated not only by local police, but also by representatives of the “special service” – which one is not specified. According to the journalist, during interrogation they said that they were representatives of the media and were filming material about Poland’s trade with Russia and Belarus, in particular about the supply of Russian agricultural products to Poland in transit through Belarus.

“It was clear that representatives of the Polish intelligence service were scared. They started asking me who else knows about this, whether Ukrainian officials and the Ukrainian government know about this. They asked who our sources were, how we found out about this, how long we have been working on this topic “, says Tkach.

According to Ukrayinska Pravda, the journalist and his cameraman were held in the commandant’s office for at least 4 hours, and were released “only after permission from above.” The publication also claims that all this time Ukrainian journalists were not allowed to call anyone and were asked whether they would talk publicly about their detention.

The publication claims that upon receiving their equipment back, the journalists noticed that some of the footage had been deleted from the memory cards. The charger was also damaged. Now journalists are communicating with lawyers.

“We are outraged by this situation, which was normalized only after publicity and with the support of the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland. The UP team thanks the ambassador and consul for their quick response and concern,” said Sevgil Musaeva, editor-in-chief of Ukrayinska Pravda.

The situation on the Polish-Ukrainian border

As wrote, Polish farmers have been resorting to protests on the border with Ukraine since the fall, from time to time blocking border checkpoints.

Polish farmers are demanding a ban on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU, with which they are unable to compete. The Polish government actually sided with the farmers. The authorities not only do not oppose the protesters, but also voice their demands on their own behalf at the international level.

In February, these protests took on a new, more aggressive form. Polish farmers began emptying Ukrainian grain from trucks and railroad freight cars. Therefore, Polish officials had to apologize to Ukraine.