LTG Cargo rejecting Belarusian orders

March 30, BPN. LTG Cargo, a subsidiary of Lithuanian Railways, rejected 41 freight orders, with 21 linked to Belarusian exports and imports over the past week (March 20 – 26), Delfi reported.

LTG said 11 orders were linked to Belarusian state-run companies, while the rest were rejected in connection with Western sanctions on Belarus.

LTG Cargo has received 2,391 freight requests since March 1, approving 1,843 after a compliance check. Out of 506 rejected requests, 258 were linked to Belarus, it noted.

Most rejected orders (108 railway carriages) concerned the transportation of vegetable oil byproducts, followed by construction materials (38 carriages), equipment (26 carriages), oil and oil products (11 carriages).

In mid-January, Lithuanian authorities launched an investigation into the smuggling of fertilizers produced by Hrodna Azot, a Belarusian company under EU sanctions.

Starting March 1, LTG Cargo tightened controls over cargo from Belarus and Russia to prevent sanctions evasion. It also suspended its contracts with Klaipėda-based Birių Krovinių Terminalas (BKT), where the Belarusian potash giant Belaruskali has a 30-percent stake.

In the last few years, democratic countries have imposed sanctions against a number of Belarusian individuals and companies over human rights abuses and the country’s complicity in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.