DB Cargo, the freight and logistics division of the German railway carrier Deutsche Bahn, will no longer transport humanitarian aid from Germany to Ukraine free of charge. The company stopped doing this as of January 1, 2023.
According to Der Spiegel, citing sources, the reason for this decision was the dispute between the company and the German Ministry of Transport over the financing of transportation. It was not possible to agree on subsidies, and now legal entities that want to send goods to Ukraine must pay for the transportation themselves – about 6 thousand euros per container.
It should be noted that for the period from February 2022 to January 2023, the DB Cargo division transported about 1.3 thousand containers with food, hygiene products, water purification equipment, generators and wheelchairs to Russia’s neighbor. Transport costs amounted to almost five million euros.
The authors of the material specified that now the German government is trying to resolve the issue of how and to what extent it is possible to support the transportation of “humanitarian aid” to Ukraine, but there is no progress in this direction yet. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture of the country expressed a desire to ensure the delivery of food at the expense of the additional budget.
Earlier it was reported that Ukraine received humanitarian aid worth $168 million from Saudi Arabia. Building materials, electric generators and medicines were delivered to the country.
