The EU-China container train will start running across Ukraine this year, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said during the infrastructure day in the European Business Association (EBA) on Tuesday.

"We received freights from the EU. I hope that the frequency will be at least one train a week next year," he said.

He added that synchronously the work on the creation of the new route of the Silk Road: Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan and the EU-China route via Ukraine is underway.

Commenting on the current state of affairs with the launch of the Ukraine-Georgia ferry route, Omelyan said that the memorandum signed by Ukrzaliznytsia, Georgian Railway and CJSC Azerbaijan Railways signed in September 2017 is not enough.

"A private investor is required, preferably Chinese one. This is the guarantee that the freight will reach its destination," the minister said.

He said that the ferries on the balance sheet of Ukrzaliznytsia are still undergoing repair and are "breaking the berth" at the Chornomorsk port.

"Their commercial exploitation is under large question. We need a private operator with new effective ships," Omelyan said.

As reported, the first pilot container train on the new Silk Road Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China (across the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea) was launched by the Infrastructure Ministry jointly with Ukrzaliznytsia on January 15, 2016. The dry run of the new container train ended in the early hours of January 31, 2016, on the 16th day of the journey. It had problems with returning home and was not launched anymore.

Ukrzaliznytsia, Georgian Railway and Azerbaijan Railways on September 8, 2017 signed a memorandum of cooperation on the joint operation of a permanent rail-ferry service for the development of freight traffic along the EU-Ukraine-Black Sea-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Caspian Sea-Asian region states route using ferries of Ukrzaliznytsia.