Minister for Reconstruction, Infrastructure and Transport Nikolai Kalashnik said that during the meeting of the Carpathian Eight it was decided to create another international format in addition to the “Coalition of the Willing” and the “Coalition of Opportunities” - the “Railway Coalition”. Its goal will be to support Ukrzaliznytsia. He emphasized that this is not about the implementation of individual solutions, but about a systemic assistance mechanism that will include locomotives, financing, energy sustainability and modernization.

Modernization of the locomotive fleet will be the first direction of work of this association, says Kalashnik, because it is important for the railway not only to restore what has been lost, but also to acquire new capabilities. As a result, $100 million from the URTF trust fund is planned to be used to purchase used tractors for UZ in foreign markets.

“Russia is systematically attacking the railway and deliberately targeting locomotives. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 533 locomotives of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC and 75 locomotives of private industrial enterprises have already been damaged,” Kalashnik noted.

The second stage is to strengthen the energy sustainability of Ukrzaliznytsia, Kalashnik said.

“As part of the summit, an agreement in principle was reached with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to allocate 130 million euros within the framework of UZ Energy for critical needs and energy sustainability of the railway. The corresponding agreements are planned to be signed by the end of September,” Kalashnik added..

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Let us remind you that on September 18, President Vladimir Zelensky introduced a new international format - the “Carpathian Eight”. Its goal is to unite the European Union with the countries of the region: Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary.

These countries, within the framework of the new format, will interact in the areas of security, energy, logistics, cross-border economic cooperation and significant support for communities. Former Ambassador Valery Chaly subsequently noted that the main thing in the work of the C8 is that the format does not remain only at the level of statements, and that Ukraine demonstrates that it “becomes an initiator, or better yet, a leader, and not a petitioner for EU money.”.