Europe

Russia threatens Lithuania after rail goods blocked

Less than 50% of material that crosses Baltic state in 100 monthly train journeys falls under EU sanctions

A freight train at the border railway station Kybartai, between Kaliningrad and Lithuania. Lithuanian authorities have banned the transit of goods, which has been characterised by Moscow as anti-Russian action. Photograph: EPA
A freight train at the border railway station Kybartai, between Kaliningrad and Lithuania. Lithuanian authorities have banned the transit of goods, which has been characterised by Moscow as anti-Russian action. Photograph: EPA
Daniel Boffey in Brussels
Dan Sabbagh in Kyiv
Tue Jun 21 2022 - 19:58

The head of the Kremlin’s security council has threatened the “population of Lithuania” in an escalation of the row over Lithuanian railway’s refusal to allow some goods to cross the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

After a meeting in the region, which is wedged between Lithuania and Poland, 800 miles from Moscow, Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, upped the rhetoric by threatening “serious consequences”.

“Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions,” Mr Patrushev said. “Appropriate measures … will be taken in the near future … Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania.”

Mr Patrushev did not specify how Russia would retaliate, merely saying it would be “interagency”. Lithuania has already dropped Russian energy imports, leaving few other options for the Kremlin.

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At the weekend, the Lithuanian state railway told Russian clients it could no longer transport steel or iron ore across EU territory to Kaliningrad, on the Baltic sea.

Goods banned from entering the EU under sanctions introduced after Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine include Russian coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology. Just less than half of the goods that cross Lithuania in about 100 train journeys every month fall under EU sanctions, although there are different dates for them coming into force.

A ban on oil will not be enforced until December as part of a compromise among the 27 EU member states.

The railways announcement prompted some panic shopping in Kaliningrad and an angry response from Moscow, where officials accused Lithuania of breaching transit agreements struck in 2004.

The European Commission has said Lithuania was acting legally, although EU head of foreign policy Josep Borrell said on Monday that he would “double-check”, in what appeared to be an attempt to take the sting out of the row.

Mr Patrushev had been speaking after a meeting in Kaliningrad, while earlier on Tuesday Russia’s foreign ministry summoned the EU ambassador to Moscow, Markus Ederer, over the “anti-Russian restrictions”.

“The inadmissibility of such actions, which violate the relevant legal and political obligations of the European Union and lead to an escalation of tensions, was pointed out,” said the ministry. .

Rearguard action

Kaliningrad, which has a population of about 500,000, is the headquarters for Russia’s Baltic fleet and hosts some of its most powerful armaments, including hypersonic missiles.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops — and an estimated 500 civilians — are still holding out at a chemical plant in the east bank city of Severodonetsk, despite weeks of heavy bombardment.

Governor of Luhansk province Serhiy Haidai confirmed that Toshkivka, a settlement on the west bank further south, had fallen into Russian hands. Neighbouring Lysychansk on the west bank was being shelled “en masse”, added Mr Gaidai added — while analysts warned of a nearby Russian breakthrough that meant the invaders’ forces were 7km southeast of the city.

Capturing Severodonetsk and Lysychansk would hand Russia almost all Luhansk oblast, one of the two regions of the Donbas. Moscow’s goal may be to demonstrate to the west it can achieve a military victory ahead of the EU, G7 and Nato summits that follow sequentially from Thursday this week. — Guardian/Reuters