Relief for Moscow’s logistics
Russia is probably building new railway lines in Ukraine
September 28, 2023, 9:46 p.m
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The railway line across Crimea supplies Russian troops in southern Ukraine with supplies. In order to ease the burden on logistics, Moscow is now apparently working on alternative routes. The construction work is said to have already begun.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russia has started building new railway lines in the occupied territories of Ukraine to improve the logistics of its troops. This was reported by the advisor to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andriushchenko, on Telegram.
Accordingly, Moscow is trying to connect the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol, Volnovakha and Donetsk to the Russian rail network. The aim is to reduce the great dependence of Russian troops on the railway line that runs across the Crimean peninsula.
With the new railway line, Moscow wants to relieve its logistics network.
(Photo: Telegram / Petro Andriushchenko)
The core of the construction project is the repair of a bridge near Mariupol, said Andriushchenko. The overpass near the village of Hranitne in the Donetsk region was blown up by retreating Ukrainian troops in March 2022, according to a report in the Kyiv Post weekly, effectively cutting off the rail route between southwest Russia and southeast Ukraine.
The destruction of the bridge forced the Kremlin to reroute its supply trains to front-line depots in southern Ukraine via Crimea – a 400-kilometer detour, according to the newspaper. Completion of the new route would drastically reduce rail traffic from Russia across Crimea, which is occupied in violation of international law, and significantly relieve the burden on Russian military logistics in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, Andriushchenko warned.
Train traffic from Russia across the peninsula also runs over the Crimean Bridge near Kerch. In the past, the overpass has repeatedly been the target of Ukrainian attacks. At the end of October 2022, an explosion brought traffic on the bridge to a standstill for several months. Attacks with maritime drones and missiles followed later.