Placards depicted a farmer swinging from a gallows next to wind farms and an EU-emblazoned executioner with the words: “Green Deal equals death of Polish agriculture,” referring to the bloc’s plan to tackle climate change.

Farmers in Poland and elsewhere in the bloc have been protesting in recent months to demand the re-imposition of customs duties on agricultural imports from Ukraine that were waived after Russia’s invasion in 2022.

They say Ukraine’s farmers are flooding Europe with cheap imports that leave them unable to compete.

With hundreds of protests planned, Reuters footage from Zakręt, east of Warsaw, showed farmers blocking ways into the capital. Tractors lined roads mounted with Polish flags while red flares were set off.

“We demand the withdrawal of the ‘Green Deal’ as a whole, we demand the withdrawal of the ‘Fit for 55’ (EU climate plan), the limits on all emissions, all the bans and orders,” said protest organizer Łukasz Komorowski, speaking to fellow rallying farmers at the Zakręt blockade.