Poland Reverses Shehyni-Medyka Bus Crossing Closure for Repairs, Keeps it Open This Summer

Poland will continue processing buses from Ukraine through the Shehyni-Medyka checkpoint this summer, despite a planned 17-month closure for repairs. Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba announced this reversal on Telegram on June 11. Lviv Customs had previously stated that traffic from Ukraine to Poland would be suspended from June 15 until November 2027.

This decision followed urgent talks between Ukraine's Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories and the Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration. Shehyni-Medyka is the busiest road link between the two countries. The Polish Embassy in Kyiv has not commented publicly.

The reversal comes amid cooled Polish-Ukrainian relations. President Karol Nawrocki, elected in June 2025, has vetoed Ukrainian refugee benefit extensions and ended their special-status regime. He also called for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be stripped of Poland's Order of the White Eagle due to a Ukrainian Special Operations unit named after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Public support for accepting Ukrainian refugees has dropped to 48 percent, according to a January 2026 CBOS survey, the lowest since Russia's invasion.

Despite these tensions, the Shehyni-Medyka rollback suggests institutional cooperation persists. Polish firm Unibep signed a contract in October 2025 to modernize the crossing, aiming for EU Entry/Exit System-compatible gates and 40 percent higher passenger throughput by Q2 2027. The corridor's status through the autumn repair phase remains a test of bilateral patience.