OREANDA-NEWS. A preliminary Memorandum was signed with Lithuanian partners on their consent to connect the route of Viking train with a new Silk Road: "This means that in the framework of our cooperation with the European Union and the implementation of the Agreement on Free Trade Area to the Silk Road there will be connected not just Ukraine, not just Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and China, but also states of the European Union", stressed Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Tuesday, February 2, during a meeting dedicated to completion of the test run of the first cargo freight train connecting Ukraine and China.

“From Klaipeda Viking train will also have an opportunity to transport cargoes directly to China, bypassing Russia," he added.

"If two years ago we had been told that we would do without Russian gas, we would no longer be dependent on Russia’s energy sources, as we had been dependent throughout the entire history of Ukraine's independence, that we would find a way to circumvent Russian trade bans and build an alternative transit route, few would have believed it. But now it is a reality. We buy gas from the member states of the European Union. Russia has banned our transit, but we have found an alternative way", stressed the Head of Government.

"Besides, we attracted our western partners to take an active part in trade and economic cooperation with those countries that belong to the so-called CIS", said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

He congratulated Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Andrii Pyvovarsky and the whole Government’s team on the successful run of the pilot train: "Next, we should work with business, work with our European partners. And it has to become a commonplace thing – the fact that we have an alternative route, and any attempt of Russia to impose either trade or transit embargo against Ukraine will always get an appropriate response".

"The more challenges we face, the more problems we face, the stronger we become. A striking example is the fact that we are capable today to build an independent economic policy. We have succeeded, with the support of our European partners, in proving that we can find ways out of most difficult situations. And we should further demonstrate our economic, political and financial independence. And what is more – our transit independence", summed up Arseniy Yatsenyuk.