Russia has launched a rail freight service through occupied Ukrainian territories. It started working on a direct rail line to Crimea over land last year. On 15 March, Russia reported that the freight route between Rostov-on-Don and Crimea started operating.
According to Oleg Kalevatykh, the deputy head of ‘Novorossiya Railways’, the first train on the route between Rostov and Crimea ran on 15 March. ‘Novorossiya Railways’ is a rail operator established by the Kremlin in May last year. Its name refers to the occupied Ukrainian provinces that Russia has dubbed ‘Novorossiya’, or ‘New Russia’. The establishment of a single new rail operator is supposed to streamline logistics operations in the occupied territories, according to Russian sources.
“Novorossiya Railways will act as a transporter in the freight and passenger sectors,” according to Kalevatykh. “Freight trains started running on the new route on 15 March. Passenger transportation will resume after a normalisation of the environment in this area.”
Kalevatykh also stated that construction work on the rail line in the occupied territories started in September 2023. Since then, 63 kilometres of new rail has been built, and 140 kilometres of rail has been renovated, according to Kalevatykh. Russia will continue to build new railways in occupied Ukraine throughout 2024.
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