"THE BLOCKADE WILL MOVE TO A NEW LEVEL" THE BEARISH BLOCKADE INITIATORS IN UZHGOROD

An action of blockade of Russian trucks also known as the "Bearish Blockade" has proved that Ukrainian social activists are able to force the government to act in accordance with society's demands without aid of any political forces. This is the most important achievement of the blockade - this was stressed by the coordinators of the "Bearish Blockade" during a press-conference in Uzhhorod, Zakarpattia.

Recall, their actions the activists have forced the government to take the decision on temporary prohibition on move through Ukrainian territory for Russian trucks. However, Truck transit between Ukraine and the Russian Federation was restored on February 25, 2016. This was announced by the Infrastructure Ministry's press service on Thursday.

In addition the activists have noted that all active measures on blocking Russian trucks are suspended, in turn, they will concentrate more efforts on the issue of activities of Russian business in Ukraine. 

"According the conclusion of our analytics, against the background of the fact that Poland has restored its transit agreement with Russia, continuation of the blockade could bring some negative consequences for Ukrainian economy," said Mykola Marchyshak.

"According to conclusions by Russian experts, the Russian budget has lost tens of millions of euros in result of blockade, and annual losses could reach about 34 billion euros. Besides, economic losses cannot be compared with the level of political damage; the blockade was a direct "slap for Putin's government," as was noted by number of Russian analysts." - the activists added.

They also stressed, that: "At the same time the interests of Ukrainian people are the top priority for us.  Thousands of Ukrainians are working in the area of international transportation. In particular, according to official data, 40% of them are from Zakarpattia."

In their joint statement the blockade coordinators have also stated the following:

"Unlike politicians, who use every opportunity to increase their electoral ratings and speculate on this action, we are, social activists, guided by the interests of Ukraine in all our decisions. By means of the "Bearish Blockade" we have managed to draw public attention to the issue of presence of Russian capital in Ukrainian business, as well as in other areas of our country's life, including media sphere. Therefore, we move to the next stage of the blockade, within which we will launch another actions. Our final goal is prohibition activities of Russian business on the state level in Ukraine. Therefore we urge the authorities to finally start to fulfill their direct functions and take a firm position on definition the status of the occupiers business in Ukraine."