Finnish Customs to start returning all trailers, semi-trailers with Russian license plates on Saturday

HELSINKI. June 23 (Interfax) - The Finnish Customs will start returning all trailers and semi-trailers with Russian license plates to Russia in line with the new EU sanctions starting Saturday midnight, the Finnish Customs' Enforcement Department press service said on Friday.

"[From] midnight on the June 24, 2023, [...] Finnish Customs will turn all trailers and semi-trailers with Russian license plates back to Russia" in the wake of the EU's new sanctions banning the operation of trailers and semi-trailers with Russian license plates in the EU, it said.

"We estimate that at the moment, roughly 40% of the trailers and semi-trailers in the commercial road transports crossing the eastern border are registered in Russia," the press service quoted Sami Rakshit, Director of the Finnish Customs' Enforcement Department, as saying.

Tractor units with Russian license plates have been banned from entering the EU since April 2022.

The EU adopted its 11th package of sanctions against Russia on Wednesday. At the proposal of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, the package extends the restrictions on road transport, effectively banning transit of goods to the EU using trailers registered in Russia.