The Polish Border Guard updated its official granica.gov.pl portal at 17:00 on 17 July announcing that all passenger and cargo traffic through the Połowce and Sławatycze road crossings on the Belarusian frontier is ‘temporarily suspended until further notice’. The notice, which appears alongside the real-time waiting-time dashboard, cites a continuing security review of the Polish-Belarusian frontier that has already seen several crossings closed since early 2024. Truck queues have shifted to the remaining open posts at Kuźnica, Bobrowniki and Koroszczyn (Kukuryki), where estimated waits climbed to seven hours for heavy-goods vehicles on Friday evening. Although the move stems from broader border-security concerns, the immediate impact will be felt by logistics operators running just-in-time supply chains between eastern Poland and Lithuania, Latvia and Finland via Belarus. Customs brokers report that at least 1,200 lorries a day were using the two now-closed posts, mainly carrying automotive components and consumer electronics assembled in the Podlaskie special-economic zone. Business travellers are also affected. Companies with manufacturing sites in Białystok and Hajnówka have instructed staff to re-route via Kuźnica—and to allow an extra half-day for round-trip travel. Polish tour operators bringing Belarusian visitors to the Masurian Lakes say they will bus clients through Terespol or organise rail connections via Brest instead. For now, Polish authorities have not specified a re-opening date, but officials privately indicate the closures are likely to last ‘several weeks’ while joint EU-NATO threat-assessment exercises on the Suwałki corridor are completed. Transport associations are urging exporters to split loads across multiple routes and to pre-lodge electronic customs declarations to avoid further delays at the alternative crossings.
