The rail cooperation between Ukraine and the Baltic countries “is a rather complex and long-term project”, said Evgeny Lyashchenko, Chairman of the Board of Ukrainian Railways (UZ). One of the fundamental points, he said, is that tariffs to reach the Baltic ports should be competitive with the ones to reach Polish ports. Lyashchenko stressed how it is necessary that the European Union implements subsidies to cover the differences in these tariffs.

Moreover, the EU should invest in projects to increase carrying capacity. For example, he cites “the construction of points for rearranging wagons”, considering that Ukraine and the Baltics still run on broad gauge, while Poland is equipped with the standard one. This constitutes an issue because using these routes currently requires two gauge changes, (between Ukraine and Poland and then again between Poland and Lithuania) but are currently the only access to the Baltics for Ukraine.

Another point raised by Lyashchenko is that phytosanitary controls should be carried out at the destination of the cargo. These are checks required for various goods entering the EU, including agricultural products, and are usually carried out at border control points. For rail, these are located at the EU borders and often slow things down. Moreover, some tensions have recently risen concerning the import of grain from Ukraine to its neighbouring countries. Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia all asked the EU to extend the ban on importing various Ukrainian agricultural products to safeguard their farmers. Only once these initial goals are reached, Lyashchenko said, it will be possible to interest customers in organising services through the port of Klaipeda.

Others seem more optimistic

Lyashchenko’s words, spoken during a meeting with representatives of Lithuanian Railways, seem to be somehow distant from what others have said so far about the Ukraine-Baltics cooperation. The Lithuanian Minister of Transport reached out to the European Commission to ask for assistance in establishing a rail export corridor via the Baltic countries at the end of July. A couple of weeks ago, its Latvian counterpart said Riga was ready to organise transport services to export Ukrainian grain already this month. Some hope from Ukraine came at the beginning of August, when the president of the Ukrainian Logistics Alliance, Edvins Berzins, highlighted the potential of the Baltic routes. Despite acknowledging that costs are the main hurdle and the necessity for EU intervention, they all showed a more optimistic perspective than Lyashchenko’s.

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