Polish military analyst Maciej Korovay in his Twitter profile drew attention to the russian project for the construction of a 500-kilometer railway track, which, according to the enemy's plan, should connect the temporarily occupied Melitopol and Mariupol directly through Berdyansk, connecting the temporarily occupied territory in the South of Ukraine with Taganrog, which in the Rostov region, russian federation.
The specificity of this project is that the occupiers want to complete the construction of the railway by the end of 2024. At the same time, most of this railway line should run along the temporarily occupied coast of the Sea of Azov.
Read more: What the First Photo of Damaged Railway Bridge over Chongar in Crimea is Talking About
In fact, it is about the fact that by building this railway branch, the russians want to create an alternative to both the Kerch Bridge and the existing corridor between the occupied Donbass and Crimea, which runs along the chord of Volnovakha-Pologi-Tokmak-Melitopol.
Macei Korovai declares that the russians are planning to build this railway with two tracks in order to have a high capacity precisely in the interests of organizing the logistical support of the russian occupying forces.
At the same time, it is indicative that the occupiers are planning that this railway will operate on diesel traction, allegedly in order to minimize the possible consequences of the strikes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on this highway. However, the reason for making such a decision may be more prosaic - the occupiers do not have enough power to supply electricity to all the systems of this railway.
From Defense Express, we consider it necessary to question the ability of the russians to lay a 500-kilometer railway just in 2024 - until this time, the russians, in principle, did not build something like this in such a short term.
Probably, in order to speed up the construction process, the occupiers will lay a railway with "lighter" characteristics, with restrictions on the speed of trains and the weight of echelons.
In view of the above, it is quite possible that in 2024, the No. 1 target for long-range strikes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine may not even be the Kerch Bridge, which connects the temporarily occupied Crimea with the russian Krasnodar Territory, but rather this railway, which the occupiers want to lay along the coast of the Sea of Azov.
As Defense Express reported, russian railways faced mounting disruptions as Ukrainian resistance steps up campaign. In particular we wrote, that two consecutive explosions on the russian railway organized by Ukrainian special services significantly worsened enemy military logistics.
Read more: Railway Used for Weapons Transportation Explodes Derailing Grain Wagons in Crimea, Missile Discovery Raises Concerns
