President Vladimir Putin plans to build a railway 720 kilometers from Russia to Crimea in an attempt to create an alternative supply line for troops if the Kerch bridge is destroyed again
The Russian president told a crowd of supporters on Monday that he would ensure that the new railway crossing occupied Ukraine would be operational soon.
“I have just been informed that the railway connecting Rostov-on-Don with Donetsk, Mariupol and Berdyansk has been rebuilt,” he said, quoted by The Telegraph and Reuters.
According to him, “we will continue this work and, soon, the trains will go to Crimea, and this will be another alternative route, in addition to the Crimean bridge”. The creation of the railway route, he further said, will strengthen Russia.
“It will genuinely make us stronger,” he said. Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-appointed head of the occupied parts of Zaporizhia, added: “By building a railway line, even a single-track one, we will solve the problems of the military.
And most importantly, we will resolve the issue of exporting cereals, iron ore, coal and other goods.”
The railway would be on a route that would make it less vulnerable to Ukrainian bombing. Remember that Russia conquered areas of southern and eastern Ukraine in the first months of the 2022 invasion, creating a “land bridge” to Crimea. But Ukraine has attacked and seriously damaged the Kerch bridge twice since the invasion.
Road and rail traffic across the bridge is frequently disrupted by the threat of further attacks. Ukrainian authorities have already made it clear that they consider the bridge a legitimate target and that they will attack it whenever they can.
The last major attack on the bridge was in October 2022, leaving it partially destroyed.