In Kamchatka, the launch of the ferry to Vladivostok has been postponed due to sanctions

The launch of the passenger ferry between Kamchatka, Vladivostok and Sakhalin has been postponed indefinitely due to sanctions announced after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This was reported by the head of Kamchatka, Vladimir Solodov.

According to the official, the construction of the ferry was not completed on time due to “import substitution and restructuring of shipyards.” Solodov said that the launch of the ferry is delayed for at least one hour.

Ferry SNF 22 or “Petropavlovsk” began to be built in 2020 in Kerch. Then the ship was completed at the Novorossiysk Ship Repair Plant. It was supposed to start running between Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Vladivostok in June 2023.

The ferry is designed for 78 cars or 28 trucks, as well as for 150 passengers. In August 2022, the Kamchatka government announced that the cost of the project had increased from 3.1 to 3.8 billion rubles. In September 2017, the Minister of Transport of Russia Maksym Sokolov, during a meeting of the State Council in Vladivostok, asked the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to find funds for the construction and launch of the ferry.

• On February 24, 2022, Russian troops invaded the territory of Ukraine and seized part of the territory of the neighboring state. After that, hundreds of Western companies stopped working in Russia, and the USA and the EU introduced several packages of sanctions. In particular, a number of companies in the transport industry have stopped supplying components to Russia.