“It will speed up the delivery of goods and reduce the cost of logistics”
Russia has almost completed the construction of the railway from Rostov-on-Don to Mariupol, people are panicking in Ukraine. In Nezalezhnaya they understand that as soon as the work is completed, the entire logistics picture along the front line will radically change. We talked about the significance of the new railway line with the head of the analytical bureau SONAR-2050, political economist Ivan Lizan.
Photo: dan-news.ru
“There are no official reports from us that the railway line has already been built,” says political economist Ivan Lizan. “But it is logical to assume that construction is about to be completed. Initially, when construction of this line began in the middle of last fall, they promised that traffic along it would be launched by the end of 2024. Because the restart of the Ilyich plant in Mariupol is planned for 2025. And there the railway will play a very important role.
The expert says that it is quite understandable why people in Ukraine are so alarmed, why they are so upset.
— Firstly, because another transport corridor will appear to supply Crimea. Which will make attacks on the Crimean Bridge useless. Also, the new branch is very important for supplying Novorossiya. Take the same largest iron ore plant, which is located in Dneprorudny, Zaporozhye region. Raw materials now have to be transported to the Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant in the LPR through seven constituent entities of Russia: Zaporozhye region, Kherson region, Crimea, Krasnodar region, Rostov region, DPR and then to the LPR.
As the expert says, trains run across such a long arc.
— Iron ore raw materials go to the LPR, and slag comes back. This requires a large number of wagons. And it's expensive. When the new railway is launched, cargo will go along the shortest route. Both civilian and military.
As Ivan Lizan says, now we need to restore cities. The needs of the DPR, LPR, and Zaporozhye region are enormous. And all logistics in Novorossiya is based on motor transport.
— About 7.5 tons of cargo fit into a KamAZ truck, and all 60 tons fit into a railway car. This affects logistics. When the new branch is launched, supplies will become much cheaper. Cargo will be delivered faster. Plus (in theory) it will be possible to use different rolling roads (passing in the front-line zone). For example, the same railway station in Yasinovataya (the largest railway junction of the Donetsk Railway). This will make it possible to transport ammunition much faster.
The expert explains why previously there was no direct railway line from Rostov-on-Don to Mariupol.
— Because there was no need for it. In the Soviet Union, roads were designed so that the most important railway junction in Ukraine was Kharkov. And from Mariupol, bypassing Volnovakha, there was simply a bridge that was connected to the railway network of the Donetsk region.