Lithuania Widens List Of Russian Goods Barred From Ground Transport To Kaliningrad

July 11, 2022

Lithuania has widened restrictions on trade through its territory from Russia to the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, including a ban on concrete, wood, alcohol, and alcohol-based industrial chemicals.

A spokesperson for Lithuanian customs told Reuters that the move was a result of the phase-ins on earlier announced European Union sanctions against Moscow taking effect.

Vilnius shut the route for transport of steel and other ferrous metals, which it said it was required to do under EU sanctions that took effect on June 18.

The EU imposed the punitive measures on Russia after it launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has stressed that his Baltic country "must" and "will" enforce EU sanctions on Russian goods amid harsh rhetoric from Moscow over Vilnius's recent restrictions affecting Kaliningrad.

Goods that fall within humanitarian or essential categories, such as food, are exempted from the sanctions.

Lithuanian officials have suggested Russia can ship goods by sea to Kaliningrad, Russia's only ice-free port year-round.

Russia in late June summoned the EU envoy to "strongly" protest and threaten unspecified "retaliation" over the overland curbs on shipments to the exclave.

Kaliningrad is wedged between Lithuania and Poland, where the Pregolya River feeds into the Baltic Sea. It has about half a million inhabitants.

Related link: Lithuania Widens List Of Russian Goods Barred From Ground Transport To Kaliningrad

Lithuania will allow sanctioned Russian goods trade to Kaliningrad

July 13, 2022

VILNIUS, July 13 (Reuters) - European Union member Lithuania will allow sanctioned Russian goods to transit its territory on their way to Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, its Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, reversing its policy after new European Commission guidelines.

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