Ukraine's
Cabinet of Ministers has supported the proposal of the Ukrainian Infrastructure
Ministry and green-lighted transit traffic of #Russian_trucks via Ukrainian
territory from February 25.
The Interior Ministry and the
National Guard were instructed to ensure safety of transit trucks, according to
a Cabinet decision taken at its meeting on Wednesday, February 24.
"They [the Russian side]
have unblocked [transit traffic] for us, and we're doing the same according to
the principle of reciprocity. And a protocol resolution obliges that safety of
transit freight should be ensured. It has been passed," Ukrainian Prime
Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.
Infrastructure Minister Andriy
Pyvovarsky, who was also present at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, said that
transit traffic had been limited in Ukraine as a result of restrictions
introduced by Russia on Ukrainian freight flows.
"But transit means no
limitations and no borders… Russia's Transport Ministry officially offered to
lift all the restrictions the Russian Transport Ministry had previously
introduced against Ukrainian trucks. We're ready to re-validate temporary
permits and let the transit traffic, which had virtually been blocked for the past
10 days, resume via Ukraine's territory as of 00:00 local time on February
25," Pyvovarsky said.
He also informed about a
meeting between his ministry and the Association of International Road Carriers
of Ukraine (AsMAP) on February 23 when the sides agreed on full and urgent
resumption of transit traffic of vehicles across Ukraine.
As UNIAN reported, Ukrainian
public activists on February 11 started blocking movement of Russian trucks
leaving Ukraine and heading towards international borders. The rally spread to
10 Ukrainian regions. In response, the Russian government banned Ukrainian
truck traffic in Russia on February 14, after which the Ukrainian government
temporarily as of February 15 invalidated transit permits issued to trucks with
Russian number plates.
Later, the sides started
negotiations and on February 16 they agreed
to unblock truck traffic both in Russia and Ukraine for
the period from February 16 to February 25.
As of February 23, about 1,500
stranded Ukrainian trucks returned home from Russia and from Asian countries
via Russian territory, according to the AsMAP.
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