Lithuania is mulling the transfer of disused locomotives, electric trains and wagons to Ukraine.

The press service of the Transport and Communications Ministry of Lithuania reported that the issue was discussed at a meeting of the Minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania Rimantas Sinkevicius with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Lithuania Valeriy Zhovtenko on Thursday.

"Ukraine is a very important transport partner of Lithuania. In the following days, the representatives of the Ministry together with Lithuanian Railways will discuss the concrete possibilities for technical assistance," reads a report issued by the Lithuanian ministry, citing Sinkevicius.

The Ukrainian representatives at the meeting said that Ukraine faces serious difficulties in terms of railway freight and passengers. The country lacks suburban electric trains and locomotives on main lines. In addition, the majority of railway rolling stock is depleted.

During the meeting, Sinkevicius and Zhovtenko discussed the electrification of the international transport corridor IXB transit line and further cooperation on developing the container train project Viking.

As reported, the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine in March 2015 asked Lithuania to transfer disused ER9M electric trains and 2M62 diesel locomotives to Ukraine for free.

"Using European Union funds in the past years Lithuania has considerably upgraded its fleet of diesel locomotives and electric trains: 44 new Siemens Eurorunner ER20 freight diesel locomotives and 10 Skoda City Elephant EJ575 double-deck electric trains were bought. This allowed [them to] take some ER9M electric trains and 2M62 diesel locomotives out of service," advisor to the infrastructure minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kava said.

He said that Ukrzaliznytsia would be able to use the electric trains on suburban routes in Poltava, Rivne, Volyn, Ternopil, Lviv and Kharkiv regions.