Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister says he is planning to cut all bus and train connections between Ukraine and Russia

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister says he is planning to cut all bus and train connections between Ukraine and Russia
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister to cut all bus and train connections with Russia / wiki
By bne IntelliNews August 17, 2018

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister says he is prepared to cut all bus and train connections between Ukraine and Russia that would add to the suspension of plane connections between the two countries already in place.

"I have signed a historic document today. Bears will be the only transport to Moscow, just like they were in the good old days," Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan wrote on Facebook page on August 16, adding that the restrictions would go beyond passenger trains.

The same day, the minister said in a televised interview that the set of possible measures, still shall be approved at the top levels in Kyiv. At the same time, he said Ukraine will continue to fulfil its transit obligations.

The measures are a response to recent Russian detentions of ships traveling to Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea, Omelyan underlined.

While the move maybe politically justified in the face of Russian mounting aggression in the Sea of Azov, there are about 3mn Ukrainians living and working in Russia who send home about 10% of the $10bn of remittances Ukraine receives today and have already been seriously inconvenienced by the existent aviation ban on flights connecting the two countries. Cutting off the bus and train connections as well will make it much more difficult to reach Kyiv from Moscow and more expensive.

Alexander Paraschiy at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital believes that these restrictions will not be limited to just cancelling direct passenger trains from Ukraine to Russia, as Omelyan had hinted earlier, but also bus connections as well.

"Ukrainians will still be able to travel to Russia, but at a higher price and using more complicated routes. Russia will surely respond with countermeasures, thereby hurting trade on both sides of the border," the expert wrote in a research note on August 17.

Paraschiy added that millions of Ukrainians travel to Russia every year to work or conduct business. “We believe these restrictions will be highly unpopular with the Ukrainian public and fuel support for Russian-oriented forces during next year's elections,” he said.

Ukraine halted airline traffic with Russia in October 2015 due to Moscow's annexation of Crimea a year before, as well as the Kremlin's invasion to the Donbas region.

Meanwhile, rail routes to Russia are among the few profitable passenger routes of Ukrainian Railway in 2017, bringing about UAH27mn ($10mn) in profits, according to lb.ua news site.

 

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