Radicals block transit of Russian trucks in four Ukrainian regions

KIEV, February 26. /TASS/. Ukrainian radicals are blocking the transit of Russian trucks in four regions, so seven trucks have been stopped and forced to go back, the press service of the Ukrainian Svoboda nationalist party said.

"We are going ahead with the campaign to block the transit of Russian trucks," a member of the party said. "By dinner we had seen no-one but later stopped seven (trucks) and told the drivers to go back."

"Traffic has not been hampered, there are no conflicts," he added.

By the time of reporting the radicals had been blocking the transit of Russian trucks in four regions - Chernovtsy, Volyn, Lvov and Transcarpathia.

Earlier in the day, representatives of Ukraine’s radical party Svoboda said they were resuming road blockades for Russian transit trucks. Its leader Oleg Tyagnibok demanded "to ban the transit of Russian trucks across Ukraine and revoke the treacherous in its essence decision to restore Russian transit from February 25".

On February 11, Ukrainian radicals in the Transcarpathian Region announced an unlimited campaign to block the transit of Russian trucks. Later they were joined by radically-minded activists in nine regions: Volyn, Rovno, Lvov, Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankovsk, Zhitomir, Vinnitsa, Sumy and Chernovtsy.

In response, on February 14, Russia halted the transit of Ukrainian transport companies’ trucks through territory. On February 15, the Ukrainian government officially announced suspension of transit traffic of trucks registered in Ukraine.

On February 24, the Ukrainian government decided to reopen the transit of Russian trucks and instructed the Interior Ministry and the customs service to ensure their safety.

Russia and Ukraine agreed to resume motor freight traffic between two countries from February 25.

Later in the day, Ukrainian radicals warned they might resume the campaign and would not allow Russian truck to pass via the country’s territory and called on the government to overhaul the decision. Apart from that, they asked Ukrainian truck drivers not to cross into Russia.