OREANDA-NEWS  Trains from Odessa and Kharkov will travel to Moscow not daily, just once in two day. This information was reported according to the website of the Ukrainian railway operator "Ukrzaliznytsia".

The changes took effect on February 5. "The decrease in flights to Russia is due to the rapid decline in passenger traffic between the countries," the company explained.

In 2018, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 772.9 thousand people to Russia, which is almost 20% less than a year earlier. At the same time, since the end of summer last year, passengers began to travel more often to the EU countries, the company stressed.

At the same time, according to the company, flights from Kiev to Moscow remain in demand and the schedule will not change. Now two trains run daily between the capitals, all tickets for them are sold.

So, from August to December 2018, 362.9 thousand people went to the EU by trains, this is 10% more than in Russia, where 329.3 thousand passengers went during this period.

At the same time last year between the cities of Russia and Ukraine marked a significant increase in bus services. The bus ride is twice cheaper than the train.

Minister of infrastructure of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelyan supported the company.

In early January, the Minister of infrastructure of Ukraine Vladimir Omelyan said that the termination of railway communication with Moscow is inevitable.  "I welcome this decision and hope that in the near future the number of trains to Moscow and other Russian cities will be reduced to zero," he wrote on Facebook.

The relevant bill was introduced by the Ministry headed by him in December 2018, the initiative does not apply to freight transport. 

Earlier was reported that the total public debt of Ukraine increased during 2018 by 2.6% to 2168.63 billion hryvnia (about $78 billion).