Media: Kyiv intends to discontinue rail commuting between Ukraine and Russia
From July 1, Kyiv plans to completely stop the railway passenger commuting between Russia and Ukraine. This was reported on Thursday by Kommersant newspaper with reference to several sources that are close to the government of Ukraine.
One of the newspaper’s interlocutors notes that the pretext for such a decision will be the JSC Russian Railways’ unwillingness to stop passenger transportation to Russia from the territories of the Donbas that are uncontrolled by Kyiv, which "violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine." The newspaper mentions that for the time being, an electric train runs between Donetsk and Russia's Taganrog.
Kommersant adds that the state administration of Ukraine's railway transport, JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia" has neither confirmed nor denied the information about preparing the ban on passenger traffic with Russia. They only noted that at that moment, there was no decision on this matter.
The newspaper notes that so far the plans to suspend passenger transportation have been officially confirmed neither in Kyiv nor in Moscow. However, their sources insist that the decision is being "actively lobbied" by NSDC (National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov and the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy.
Some information about the possible termination of passenger rail transportation between Ukraine and Russia has already appeared recently. In particular, last week this was reported by the URA.RU news agency with reference to one of the Ukrainian forums users, who then referred to sources in the transport department.
The press service of "Ukrzaliznytsia" denied those messages at the time. "This information is not true," the representative of the company's press service said then. RZD (Russian Railways) stated that they did not receive any official notification from Ukraine about the cancellation of the passenger train route with Russia.
According to Kommersant, RZD also stated that they did not receive any documents from Ukraine regarding the termination of passenger traffic with Russia.