MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Polish farmers spilled from 160 to 180 tons of Ukrainian grain that was en route to Morocco by train and must pay compensation for the damage, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said.

"The one who caused the damage must pay for it. This can be decided in court or voluntarily," he said as quoted by the RBC-Ukraine news agency.

Vysotsky noted that damage to private property is a violation of the law. He also confirmed that Poland has begun to press criminal charges in cases where Polish protesters scattered grain. The deputy minister hopes "to bring the case to court in the shortest possible timeframe [to obtain] justice and full compensation for the damage."

Currently, relations between Kiev and Warsaw have become strained due to actions by Polish farmers and truckers to block border checkpoints in protest against cheap Ukrainian farm products flooding the domestic Polish market.

Since last November, disgruntled Poles have staged sporadic protests, demanding the revocation of benefits extended by the European Union to Ukrainian truck drivers after February 24, 2022.

However, in February the protests intensified. On February 20, Polish farmers poured Ukrainian grain out of train cars and blocked the railway tracks with construction rubbish. Since then, incidents of grain being spilled from freight trains have been repeated more than once.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called the situation with the ongoing blockade a mockery, while the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called on Warsaw to unblock the border, scrutinize the legality of the Polish protesters’ actions, and put a stop to anti-Ukrainian rhetoric.

The Ukrainian side also expressed its displeasure with a poster held up by one of the protesting Polish farmers that called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to straighten things out with Kiev, Brussels and the Polish government.