PKP LHS: Ukraine has unblocked the transit of trains from Asia through Poland

The company PKP Linia Hutnicza Szerokotorowa informed on Thursday about unblocking the transit for railroad freight from Asia to Poland through the territory of Ukraine. The ban on shipments had been in force since November 30 last year.

– The Management Board of PKP Broad Gauge Metallurgical Railway Company informs that since February 10, Ukraine has unblocked the transit of trains from Asia to Poland through its territory. At the same time, Ukrainian Railways have made changes to the restriction on the ban on loading goods into UZ (Ukrainian Railways – PAP) wagons bound for Poland, the PKP LHS company said on Thursday.

The ban imposed by UZ on accepting for transport all shipments sent from 15 selected countries (including China, Russia, Kazakhstan) to Poland in transit through Ukrainian territory had been in force since November 30 last year.

Representatives of PKP S.A. and PKP LHS argued that the actions of UZ meant the interruption of international supply chains leading through Ukraine to Poland.

– We are the only European country affected by such an indefinite ban – said a member of the Board of the Polish State Railways S.A. Andrzej Olszewski during the press conference on 18 January this year.

The day after the conference the Company Organization of the NSZZ “Solidarność” PKP LHS organized a picket in front of the Ukrainian Consulate in Lublin, during which railwaymen demanded the lifting of restrictions imposed on Polish freight transport.

On 31 January, on the initiative of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda and the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zełensky a meeting in this matter took place between the Ministers of Infrastructure of Poland Andrzej Adamczyk and Ukraine Oleksander Kubraków in the presence of the Head of the International Policy Office in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland Jakub Kumoch and the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak.

– The parties reached an agreement on the earliest possible lifting of restrictions on rail freight transit through the territory of Ukraine to Poland,” a statement published after the meeting on the website of the Presidential Chancellery said.

According to data from the Ukrainian statistics office, over the past two years, Poland has become Ukraine’s second trade partner, second only to China in terms of trade value. In the first ten months of 2021, Ukraine’s imports to Poland reached $4.4 billion, which exceeds Ukraine’s exports to Russia by nearly two times and exports to Ukraine’s other neighbours, such as Hungary and Slovakia, by three times.

source: PortalMorski.pl