
Transit cargo transportation to third countries via Russian railways has not been subject to restrictions by the European Union to date. Despite this, acting in the general logic of Denmark’s fierce anti-Russian policy, a large Danish logistics company, which took over the German freight company Schenker in April, announced the cessation of transit cargo transportation in 2025 and the first half of 2026, which will bring significant losses to the company.
DB Schenker, a subsidiary of the state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn, has continued to use Russian railways to transport thousands of containers of goods through Europe since February 2022.
And this is in direct violation of the internal rules of DSV, according to DSV CEO Jens Lund.
“DSV has a clear policy that we do not transport to, from or via Russia,” the company previously wrote in an email to Berlingske.
According to Der Spiegel, DB Schenker, which may very soon have Danish owners, transported almost 11,200 containers through Russia in the first half of 2024.
In all of 2023, the figure was 16,000 containers. If DB Schenker maintains the cadence from the first half of the year, they will beat that amount by a long way.
Stopping The Freight Through Russia
Schenker’s freight through Russia must be stopped so that the company’s activities align with DSV’s policy.
“This is what DSV CEO Jens Lund said at a teleconference for journalists,” writes Børsen.
“We have confirmed that we have the same policy. We have now reviewed the books in Schenker, and we are in the process of phasing out those volumes,” he says, according to the media outlet.
According to the CEO, most contractual obligations will be completed before the end of the year, while some will potentially expire in 2026.
In the wake of the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, DSV announced that it would no longer use Russian railways to transport goods. Schenker has not had that policy.
When DSV formally took over Schenker at the end of April, Jens Lund announced that DSV would have to live up to the contractual obligations that Schenker had.
At the same time, the CEO opened up the possibility that DSV’s policy of not transporting goods through Russia could be changed. This was reported by the media MobilityWatch.
Both DSV and Schenker parted ways with their activities in Russia in 2022, MobilityWatch reports.
Although DSV has a policy of not transporting goods through Russia, it has happened anyway.
The company acknowledged this to MobilityWatch and ShippingWatch in August 2024.
Here it was stated that in one case, orders had been completed for the transport of cars from China to Russia.
In addition, one of the company’s subcontractors had transported clothes to Europe via Russia.
The use of Russian railways has not been affected by international sanctions. Therefore, it is not a question of DSV breaking sanctions, but that the company has not lived up to its own policy.
On Thursday, Jens Lund emphasised that the decision for Schenker to stop shipping goods through Russia has economic consequences.
“It is not something that harms our business as such, but it is significant,” he said, according to MobilityWatch.
Source:
- Politiken (in Danish)
- Berlingske (in Danish)