Lithuanian Railways: sanctioned goods comprise 15 pct of transit traffic to Kaliningrad

VILNIUS – Goods subject to the European Union’s (EU) restrictions on the transit of certain products of Russian origin via EU territory, which came into effect on Sunday, comprise 15 percent of the total transit cargo traffic transported via Lithuania by rail to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LTG), the country's state-owned railway company, has said.

Meanwhile, the Lithuanian customs reported about certain exemptions for certain fertilizers of Russian origin or imported from Russia, which would allow transporting 837,500 tons of potassium chloride and 1.58 million tons of mineral and chemical fertilizers per year, starting from July 10, should the envisaged quotas be granted.

A ban on the transit of Russian-origin cement, alcohol, wood, glass and a number of other goods via Lithuania came into force on Sunday after the expiry of the transitional period provided for in the fifth package of the European Union’s (EU) restrictive measures against Russia.

LTG's communication partner Kotryna Dzikaraite told BNS that 550,000 tons of goods, which were now subject to new sanctions, had been transported via Lithuania to Kaliningrad and to mainland Russia in the first half of 2022.

“Out of this volume, ferrous metals comprised up to 9 percent of the total transit cargo traffic between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad, cement accounted for 3 percent, alcohol products – for 1.4 percent, timber products – for 0.6 percent,” she said.

Some 2.6 million tons of cargo were transported from mainland Russia to its exclave of Kaliningrad via Lithuania by rail between January and May, including 1 million tons of coal, 0.6 million tons of oil and oil products, and 0.4 million tons of farm products.

Approximately 0.7 million tons of cargo were transported from Kaliningrad to mainland Russia during the same period, including 0.5 million tons of food products.

A ban on the transit of coal and other solid fossil fuels is set to enter into force on August 10, followed by a ban on Russian oil and its products from December 5.