The situation in Ukraine is negatively affecting the volumes of freight transportation between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian Railways’ President Vladimir Yakunin has said, the RZhD-Partner publication reports.
"What is happening in Ukraine is leading to a drop in the cargo base and freight transport in that direction," Yakunin said, commenting on a 1% reduction in the company’s freight transport volume in the first half of this year. Russian Railways’ Vice President Salman Babayev said that the reduction of freight transport volumes compared with last year could reach 4% by the end of July.
At the same time, according to the Freight One company’s General Director Oleg Bukin, this company is not feeling the negative impact of the political events in Ukraine. “For now, the Freight One Ukraine company (a subsidiary of the Freight One company) is operating well enough: all its railcars are in operation. Nobody has abolished business there," said Bukin. According to him, the Freight One company transports gravel from Ukraine to Russia and transports various types of cargoes from Russia to Ukraine.
As reported earlier, Freight One is part of UCL Rail, which is the railway division of the international transport group Universal Cargo Logistics Holding (UCL Holding). UCL Rail owns over 210,000 freight cars, including about 112,000 gondola cars and more than 55,000 tank cars. It is the largest railway operator in Russia. Freight One Ukraine operates more than 5,000 railcars belonging to Freight One along with its own fleet of 495 gondola cars and 110 tank cars. The company meets the needs of more than 50 enterprises coal, metallurgical, construction, chemical, and other industries.
