Ukraine’s trade volume (only the Ukrainian territories currently controlled by the central government) halved to USD 75 billion in 2015 compared with the volume five years ago. However, the country registered a slight trade surplus in 2015.
"The volume of trade with the European Union is already twice the volume of trade with Russia. Their shares of Ukraine’s trade turnover were 38% and 19%, respectively. In 2015, Ukraine dropped into third place among Moscow’s post-Soviet trading partners (accounting for only 2.8% of Russia's trade turnover), behind Minsk and Astana," Sergei Shelin, a columnist with the Rosbalt news agency, wrote in the column "Ukraine Still Left."
These calculations are based on data from Russia’s Federal Statistics Service and Ukraine’s State Statistics Service. According to the journalist, there is not much difference between the data from both agencies.
According to Shelin, Russia accounted for only about 10% of Ukraine’s trade and the European Union accounted for more than 40% in the first months of this year. The value of the goods that were imported from Russia in the period of January-February 2016 was about the same as the value of the goods that imported into Ukraine from China or Germany. The other major trading partners of Ukraine are now Turkey, Poland, and Belarus.
In 2011, when the volume of Ukraine's foreign trade (exports plus imports) peaked at USD 151 billion, operations with Russia accounted for 32% of the country’s trade turnover while operations with the European Union accounted for 29%. From Moscow's perspective, Ukraine accounted for 6% of its foreign trade turnover, which is more than any other former Soviet republic and 1.5 times more than its second largest post-Soviet trading partner (Belarus).
