Russians launch railroad to bypass Crimean Bridge

Monitoring group The Frontelligence Insight writes, Defense Express reports. 

This line is up to 80 kilometers long, and its launch allows the Russians to establish a railway connection between Taganrog and the temporarily occupied Mariupol, bypassing the Crimean Bridge to provide logistics for the Russian army in southern Ukraine.

As the Frontelligence Insight monitoring group further clarifies, the Russians began constructing this railroad no later than June 2023. In addition, approximately in April or early May of this year, the invaders “in test mode” established the railway operation between Volnovakha and the seaport of the temporarily occupied Mariupol.

The authors of the Frontelligence Insight group provide two satellite images confirming the railway service launch between Mariupol and Taganrog.

These images reveal two important details:

• This railway line has only one track, limiting its capacity to up to 10 trains per day.
• The images indicate that this line can only accommodate trains with limited mass, less than the standard 54 freight cars and 4,000 tons respectively.

The Frontelligence Insight group emphasizes that the trains “illuminated” on satellite images could also have been launched “in test mode” and that the line between Mariupol and Taganrog will be fully operational in the summer of 2024. But here one can counter that the occupiers are unlikely to be able to use this railroad with a greater load than the one they are testing this highway with.

However, in this case, the significance lies not only in the throughput capacity but also in the effect this railway has for the Russians. Essentially, this line allows the enemy to manage their military logistics without relying on the "Crimean Bridge" and also reduces the delivery time of supplies to their front lines.

Additionally, the Russian occupiers can potentially "free up" the "Crimean Bridge" to meet the direct needs of their regime on the Crimean Peninsula.