New Russian project could alter the outcome of the war in Ukraine

Infrastructure and logistics play a very important role in wars. Russia knows this well, and the Kremlin has taken care to develop new infrastructure that could be very beneficial to Russia in the war in Ukraine.

This is a new railway line called Tavrida-2, which measures about 500 kilometers and connects the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don with Crimea, as reported by the Spanish newspaper El País.

This infrastructure, built along the Sea of Azov, guarantees a greater Russian presence in the occupied provinces: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The spokesman for the Ukrainian navy, Dmitro Pletenchuk, has stated that the Russians will complete the railway section before the end of the year, “at least from Rostov-on-Don to the Dzhankoi Isthmus” (between Crimea, illegally annexed in 2014, and Kherson). 

It is not the first railway line connecting Russia to the occupied territories. There is another one that crosses the Kerch Strait bridge.

On several occasions Ukraine has managed to partially destroy this bridge, considerably delaying the invader's military logistics times. However, the new project represents an alternative for Russia.

Among the objectives of this new project is the need to increase the supply of equipment to the Russian military forces.

On the other hand, Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-imposed governor of the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia, also said that this new railway will help solve the problems of exporting products such as grain, iron ore, coal, as reported by the newspaper The Telegraph.

Pletenchuk has expressed concern about the progress of this infrastructure that has been built in a very short time. For this reason, the Ukrainian authorities are looking for a way to boycott the transit of these trains, which would travel even closer to the combat zone.

The construction of this railway was not a surprise. Last March, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's intelligence services, Kirilo Budanov, stated that Russia was completing the construction of that line.

Vladimir Putin, in his propaganda speeches, also made reference to this infrastructure. The creation of this route “will make us genuinely stronger,” the president said at a rally in March.

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