Dozens of Ukrainians blocked a checkpoint on the Polish border Wednesday, angry over new visa restrictions imposed after the European Union's borderless travel area expanded eastward, authorities said, according to AP. About 40 people laid massive concrete blocks and wooden bars across a main highway, blocking traffic to and from Poland and stranding over 100 trucks at the border, said Roman Stakhiv, a spokesman for the local border guard unit. Thousands of Ukrainians who live near the border make their livings from selling grocery products and clothing imported from Poland. They have been angered by the new rules imposed last month when Poland became part of Europe's Schengen frontier-free zone. The rules complicate procedures for Ukrainians to get visas to visit Poland, and make the visas prohibitively expensive for most people. The protesters demanded that the visa restrictions be eased for those living in the 50-kilometer (30 mile) border zone, said Volodymyr Malinovsky, a spokesman for the Pora group, which helped organize the protests. In Warsaw, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said a draft agreement on small border traffic was almost ready. «But, talking in real terms, we must remember that the infrastructure of border crossings must be improved,» he said. «That will take time needed for the construction of border crossings. So I would not like to raise expectations. We are proceeding with as much energy as possible.»
