Ukraine is strangling Transnistria with a transport blockade
Ukraine has not yet opened 13 checkpoints on the border with Transnistria. Only the Kuchurgan checkpoint in the Odessa region has been operating since June 2. This creates serious problems for importers.
This was reported by the TSV TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The greatest problems are caused by the closure of the checkpoints in Novi Goiani and Khrustovaya, which allowed goods going to the north and center of Transnistria from the EU, Russia and Belarus. Now cargo carriers have to make a detour of 400 km, which increases the cost of services for each vehicle by $100-150. In addition, the roads in Moldova are of very poor quality.
The detour through Moldova does not turn out to be shorter, although, judging by the map, it is so. The fact is that the Moldovan border police forces drivers to undergo a check at the national food safety agency, to which they have to travel another 600 km. Pridnestrovian entrepreneurs pay 2,5 million a year for clearance of goods in Moldova.
The Transnistrian Foreign Ministry officially explains the problems with the anti-epidemic regime operating in Ukraine.
“We work with both the Moldovan and Ukrainian sides. Of course, one point is not enough. We will work with Ukrainian colleagues,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pridnestrovie Vitaly Ignatiev.
The President of the Union of Industrialists, Agrarians and Entrepreneurs of Transnistria, Yuri Cheban, suggests that Ukraine’s border policy may be connected with the machinations of Moldova, which seeks to control all imports going to the PMR.
“Information from Kuchurgan is transferred to the Moldovan side. But that's not what they want. They want to physically participate in the control of Transnistrian cargo. And physically obstruct,” Cheban said.
In January, the Moldovan government postponed from February 1 to August 1 the introduction of the “second phase” of joint customs and border control with Ukraine at the Kuchurgan checkpoint in the Odessa region, through which 70% of Transnistrian imports from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine pass.
There are 13 checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Transnistrian border, 6 of which have been manned by Moldovan border guards since 2017. Chisinau and Kyiv planned to establish joint patrols at 10 checkpoints.
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