Finland cannot give Ukraine high-speed trains

Due to contractual reasons, Finland will not be able to give Ukraine the four Allegro high-speed trains that Kyiv requested during the visit of Prime Minister Sanna Marin last week.

This was reported by Euractiv.

Topi Simola, senior vice president of the Finnish state-owned railway company VR-Group, said that the company cannot donate trains and make its own decisions regarding the four Allegro trains.

The high-speed trains, which were originally purchased to serve a commercial line between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, are owned by Karelian Trains LLC, a joint venture established in 2006 and equally owned by the Finnish VR-Group and Russian Railways (RZD).

The trains operated from 2010 until March 2022, when Karelian Trains was placed on the US sanctions list.

Simola said that negotiations on the future of the trains are currently underway. "At the moment, from a VR perspective, the situation is simple. The fate of the trains requires a unanimous decision from the owners of Karelian Trains," he added.

Author - Olena Madiak, 16/03/2023