The board of directors at VR Group has said it has made a decision to stop freight traffic between Russia and Finland and terminate the associated contracts.
The Finnish travel, logistics and maintenance company intends for traffic to cease by the end of the year at the latest.
Topi Simola, acting managing director of VR Group, said: “We estimate that traffic will be reduced to about a third of the original level by the end of the summer. Some customers want to continue traffic until the end of the notice period, but we are still continuing negotiations on stopping traffic faster than this. In any case, all Russian freight traffic operated by VR will end by the end of the year at the latest.”
Traffic is being terminated customer by customer, as Western sanctions do not, VR Group says, apply to all rail transport between the EU and Russia.
VR has said it will also divest its affiliates and subsidiaries in Russia related to freight transport.
