UKRAINE: Ukraine has withdrawn from the CIS Railway Council, which was established in 1992 to facilitate continued interoperability between the railways across the former Soviet Union.
National railway Ukrzaliznytsia cut all ties with Russia and Belarus following the full-scale invasion on February 24. The military removed the rail connections with the Russian network, and since the attack no exchange of information between the railway administrations has taken place.
Ukrzaliznytsia said the formal withdrawal, which was approved with a cabinet degree dated November 22, was one of the initiatives aimed at ending all ties with what it called ‘the aggressor country and its minion’.
The CIS Railway Council is based in in Moscow and chaired by the head of Russian Railways. Its members are the national railways of Azerbaijan, Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova. Other ex-Soviet railways and those of neighbouring countries have varying levels of associate participation.
