Over 100 train cargo cars loaded with Moldovan goods got stuck on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border

Until now, over 100 carriages loaded with Moldovan goods, including wine products, got stuck on the border of Moldova and Ukraine. The train cars are stuck there from the beginning of September this year, because of the repairs performed on Podolski – Ocnita railway sector. The Moldovan Railways (CFM) wasn’t notified by the Ukrainian authorities about the traffic resuming yet, even if Ukrainian part planed to reopen the bridge on September 29 this year, Anatol Tvetcov, the CFM director’s advisor told Info-Prim Neo. According to him, the Moldovan side considers that the reparation of the bridge is finished. Tvetcov states that passengers and trains’ transport is ensured by Larga–Sochireni railway, but this customs point does not provide services for the goods which are subjects to excises, as wine products are. Tvetcov says that CFM authorities are in process of negotiation with the Ukrainian part, in Moscow, of train traffic reopening on the railway sector Moghiliov-Podolski – Ocnita. CFM authorities are still concerned with fact that the Russians insist on reopening transport of passengers and cargo trains through Transnistrian territory, despite the fact that the Moldovan side says that this is impossible as long as the transportation of goods and passengers through this region is not secure because the Moldovan part has no control over that zone. Signing an act with CFM, on September 7, Ukrainian part took the responsibility only for the transit trains which can be sequestrated in Transnistrian territory (similar to March 4 situations) and not for Moldovan cargo trains. The chairman of Wine Producers and Exporters Association, Gheorghe Cozub told Info-Prim Neo that in the period between September 1 and the present moment, the exporters have sent a part of the products to Odessa by car and then the wines were loaded on train cars. This method is very expensive and does not allow transportation of a big quantity of wine products, the same source says. According Cozub, at this moment the exports of Moldovan wines are almost stopped, taking into consideration that previously 90% of the wine exports were transported by railway conveyance. Cozub also says that the Association has appealed to state authorities to interfere along with Ukrainian part regarding reopening the cargo trains’ traffic through the custom on the Moghiliov-Podolski – Ocnita railroad.