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Russia threatens to block all Ukrainian transports

Xinhua, February 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Russia may deny entry to and block all Ukrainian transports via Russia, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday.

The statement was a response to the Ukrainian cabinet's announcement earlier Monday to block Russian cargo vehicles.

"Counter measures have been imposed in order to urge the Ukrainian side to deal with the situation. Additional supervisory powers now would be applied to all kinds of transport coming from the territory of Ukraine," Medvedev said at a meeting with his deputies.

During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that the Ukrainian side had released several trucks from its territory following consultations involving Russia's foreign and transport ministries.

"But today...the Ukrainian side has formally decided to stop the movement of Russian trucks on the territory of Ukraine," Dvorkovich said.

The Russian Ministry of Transport Sunday started denying entry to cargo trucks registered in Ukraine and has so far blocked 161 Ukrainian trucks in transit on Russian territory, the ministry said Monday in a statement.

The ministry added that these measures were not applied to Ukrainian cargo vehicles transiting Russia to Kazakhstan.

It noted that unidentified groups of people starting Feb. 11 have blocked more than 100 Russian trucks carrying goods to the European Union (EU) in different Ukrainian regions, while 500 others returning from the EU had been denied entry to Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities did not take any actions to stop the blockade, the ministry said.

The situation was complicated by the fact that Russia and Poland had failed to reach a new agreement on the transit of cargo transports, which left only two routes between Europe and Russia -- via Ukraine or via Lithuania by ferry, according to the ministry.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday also said the transit ban of Russian trucks via Ukrainian territory is contradicting the norms of international law.

"We are closely following the situation and proceed from the fact that the Ministry of Transport is undertaking energetic measures to unblock this situation ... adequate response measures will be introduced in case of unfavorable developments," Peskov said.

The relationship between the two countries soured after Ukraine's pro-Russia president was forced out by pro-West demonstrations and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine.

Russia has taken a series of restrictive measures against Ukraine, including the suspension of a Russia-Ukraine free trade agreement in response to Kiev joining a free trade zone with the EU. Moscow has also imposed a total ban on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine since Jan. 1.

For its part, Kiev has canceled preferential import duties on a range of Russian goods and imposed an embargo on some products made in Russia. Endi