Truck drivers from various countries, including Kazakhstan, are stranded at the Grigorovshchina checkpoint on the Belarus-Latvia border. They arrived at the border with pre-arranged routes, but after the sudden halt of traffic through the crossing, they were forced to stop and wait for a decision from the Latvian side, reports infohub.kz.
Kazakh drivers Nurbakyt Naubetov and his partner were heading to Germany. Their documents specify the Grigorovshchina checkpoint, so they cannot change their route on their own.
"We have to cross the border here at Bigosovo. We arrived in the morning and found out the border was already closed. Now, until there's an official statement from the Latvian authorities, we can't even turn back. We're just standing and waiting, not knowing what to do," said Nurbakyt.
The driver said he had never encountered such a situation before. If the closure had been announced in advance, they could have planned a different route.
"We simply didn't know that Bigosovo was closed. If we had known, maybe we would have figured something else out," he noted.
Now the truckers are forced to spend their time waiting right at the border. They cook meals in roadside conditions—boiling soup on a gas burner, using supplies they usually take on long-haul trips.
"We'll be stuck here until Monday for sure, and then we'll see what they say. The rest is out of our hands. The main thing is the weather is good," said the partner of the Kazakh driver.
Latvia halted traffic through the Grigorovshchina checkpoint, citing technical reasons. The Belarusian side said there were no problems on its end and the checkpoint continues to operate.
In addition to Kazakh citizens, drivers from Belarus and Kyrgyzstan are also affected by the wait at the border. Many note that the lack of advance warning about the closure was the most surprising.
Some truckers who arrived after the suspension was announced turned around and chose alternative routes. However, for those whose documents are tied to a specific checkpoint, waiting is the only option.
If the delay is prolonged, drivers will have to reroute through other borders—for example, through Lithuania or Poland—which would add hundreds of kilometers to their journey and result in additional costs.