The ban was announced by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry on February 2 when LTG was officially notified about that in writing by the Moscow-headquartered Council for Rail Transport of the CIS countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria.
After the ban came into force, the number of trains crossing the Belarusian border will drop by 45 to 480-540 per month. Lithuanian-origin trains should make up around 25 percent of them and the majority of them would go to Russia and Ukraine, as well as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. They would carry various cargoes non-covered by the Belarusian ban and would include food and plant-based products as well as equipment, LTG told BNS.
Transit trains from Kaliningrad to Belarus and Russia, further going to Kazakhstan and China, would make up around 55 percent (240-270) of the total number of trains.
The remaining 20 percent would include trains going from the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda and shipping goods to Russia and Belarus, as well as going in the direction of Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
LTG says the Belarusian ban will not have a major impact on these shipments as small shipments of oil and oil products and fertilizers are shipped from Klaipeda.
The Jonava-based fertilizer producer Achema and oil refiner Orlen Lietuva will be most hit by the Minsk ban.
Minsk was informed about the future ban after the Lithuanian government decided to order LTG to terminate its transit contract with Belarusian fertilizer producer Belaruskali as of February 1, citing its nonconformity with a national security interest, to implement the existing US sanctions for the Belarusian company.