A railroad worker bypasses the railroad tracks. File photoMINSK, Feb. 7The decision of Belarus to ban the transit through its territory of oil products, chemical and mineral fertilizers shipped from Lithuania by rail, loaded at the stations of the Lithuanian Railways came into force. On February 2, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry announced that Minsk, in response to the decision of Vilnius to limit the transit to the Lithuanian seaports, which the Belarusian authorities regarded as a violation of international obligations and an element of hybrid aggression, introduces retaliatory restrictive measures against the transit of a number of goods from Lithuania. />Lukashenka threatened Ukraine with a cessation of electricity supplies In order to comply with international rules, Minsk informed all interested parties four days before the decision came into force. Thus, as the Foreign Ministry explained, «this convention ban, at the initiative of the Belarusian side, will be announced by the Directorate of the Railway Transport Council of the CIS member states and will enter into force on February 7, 2022.» Minsk emphasized that the Belarusian side had repeatedly offered Lithuania consultations to resolve the issue of the transit of Belarusian goods in the legal field — at the level of the Ministry of Transport and at the government level, but Vilnius refused to dialogue. According to the Belarusian side, about 1.5-1.6 million tons of goods are transported through the territory of the republic, falling under the retaliatory measures of Minsk , in the amount of more than a billion dollars annually. On January 12, the Lithuanian government decided to cancel the agreement on the transit of Belarusian fertilizers from February 1 in the light of the sanctions imposed on December 8 by the United States against Belaruskali. On December 21, the Coordinating Commission for Ensuring the Protection of Objects Important to Lithuania's National Security decided that the agreement between the state company Lietuvos Gelezinkelai and Belaruskali did not meet the interests of national security. Based on these findings, the Cabinet decided to terminate the contract. It was signed in 2018 until 2023 and provided for the rail transit through Lithuania and the loading of 11 million tons of Belarusian fertilizers per year in the port of Klaipeda.The source explained why the ban on transit from Lithuania will not affect Russia against «Belaruskali», and «Lithuanian Railways» continued the transit of Belarusian products through the territory of Lithuania, for which they had already received an advance payment. The heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Transport submitted their resignations, but the prime minister did not satisfy the petition. LZD head Mantas Bartushka resigned. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said that the situation around Belaruskali had done great harm to the state's reputation. Against this background, the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport announced plans to propose to the government to impose sanctions against Belaruskali at the national level by passing a law. To this end, the ministry has prepared a bill that prohibits the transit of goods from Belarus. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko previously ordered that retaliatory measures be taken against Lithuania in the event of blocking the transit of goods from Belarus.
Minsk considered the transit of potassium chloride through Ukraine, Lukashenka said
