Estonia's Omniva: Universal postal service partially resuming with Russia

TALLINN - Estonia's state-held postal company Eesti Post operating under the Omniva brand has announced that its postal and parcel delivery service to Russia, which has been suspended  due to the Russian military attack on Ukraine, resumes partially on Monday.

Universal postal service consignments -- that is standard parcels, ordinary maxi letters, registered maxi letters as well as ordinary standard letters and registered standard letters -- can be sent to Russia. EMS courier services, business maxi letters, business registered maxi letters as well as business standard letters and business registered standard letters will remain unavailable.

Omniva has ended the delivery of periodicals arriving from Russia and has stopped accepting subscriptions for said periodicals. The company has also suspended Western Union payments with Russia and Belarus.

Mail exchange with Ukraine is currently chaotic due the war on the Ukrainian territory. The national postal service of Ukraine goes to Poland for the post whenever possible, the state-owned company said.

Airspace restrictions also disrupt shipments to Central Asian countries that were previously transported through Russia or Russian airspace. 

Postal and parcel delivery service with Belarus continues in both directions, however, Western Union payments with Belarus have been suspended.

Ominva continues to deliver parcels from Asia to the Baltics and the surrounding area. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the said operations are conducted according to an updated flight schedule due to international sanctions on Russia. 

Companies flying parcels from China fly around Russia, and only planes registered in the People's Republic of China can currently bring goods from China to Europe by flying directly over Russia. At the moment, this does not affect the delivery times for end users, as flights take place on a daily basis and parcels will continue to be delivered quickly.