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Wagons in Kaliningrad: Train services to the Russian exclave are resumed
Photo: VITALY NEVAR / REUTERS
A train has arrived in Kaliningrad – the first to reach the Russian exclave through Lithuania after the dispute over restrictions on freight traffic was settled.
The Russian train was loaded with cement, Kaliningrad governor Anton Alikhanov told the official TASS news agency.
Alikhanov spoke of a "rather big success".
Kaliningrad is located on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland and has no direct land connection to Russia.
EU member Lithuania had restricted freight traffic between Russia and the exclave since mid-June.
Goods that fall under the EU sanctions against Russia could no longer be brought by rail from Russia to Kaliningrad via Lithuania.
Moscow called for the restrictions to be lifted and accused the EU of violating a 2002 agreement on travel to Kaliningrad.
The EU Commission then made it clear in mid-July that there was no general ban on freight transport by train.
However, the transit of sanctioned military equipment remains prohibited.
ani/AFP