WARSAW, March 20 Reuters Polish farmers blocked roads with tractors and flares on Wednesday in escalating protests against EU environmental regulations and cheap food imports from neighbouring Ukraine which the bloc provisionally agreed to prolong.

Placards depicted a farmer swinging from a gallows next to wind farms and an EUemblazoned executioner with the words Green Deal equals death of Polish agriculture.

Farmers in Poland and elsewhere in the bloc have been protesting in recent months to demand the reimposition of customs duties on agricultural imports from Ukraine that were waived after Russia39;s invasion in 2022.

They say Ukraine39;s farmers are flooding Europe with cheap imports that leave them unable to compete.

Farmers also want changes to restrictions placed on them by the bloc39;s Green Deal to tackle climate change.

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

On Wednesday, the EU reached provisional agreement to extend Ukrainian food producers39; tarifffree access to its markets until June 2025 albeit with new limits on grain imports.

Polish protest leaders said they were not happy with the latest deal as it included the last few years as a reference for import limits. They want quotas based on figures from well before the war in Ukraine began, when imports were much lower.

We demand quotas…