Each year Ukraine exports around $1.8 billion worth of its goods via Russia, but Kyiv hopes the negative effects from the transit restrictions Moscow has introduced since the beginning of 2016 will be minimized thanks to alternative new transit routes, said Aivaras Abromavicius, Ukraine's Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

"We are not expecting any negative impact [from the transit restrictions]. We hope our partners will lift these restrictions as quickly as possible," he told a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

At the same time he noted that currently, due to the increased transportation costs, the cost of supplying goods to Asia via Russia could rise, given the increase in transportation distance by around 500 kilometers, so transport costs will rise by approximately 23-50% depending on the type of goods.

There are plans to ensure steady supplies by introducing, as early as this February, a new alternative route via Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, says Volodymyr Omelian, Deputy Infrastructure Minister. Thanks to agreements with these countries, which set a single preferential rate, the price of sending goods by freight train will be competitive when compared with that of the Russian route, whereas the transit length will remain the same.

Ukraine pins great hopes on this new Silk Road in the expectation that it will be used for Chinese goods bound for Europe and Ukrainian goods in the opposite direction, Omelyan said.

In 2015, Ukraine exported 25 million tonnes of its goods to China, mainly by sea, whereas the export potential of the new route, with four trains shuttling back and forth per month, is around one million tonnes, the deputy minister said.

If the sea route goes to southern China, the new alternative route will enable Ukrainian exporters to strengthen their market positions in the northern China region which has been growing dynamically, Omelyan added.