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The railroad's importance in the war in Ukraine makes it part of the target

2022-04-19T07:56:19.420Z


The railroad's importance in the war in Ukraine makes it part of the target Created: 04/19/2022, 09:45 am By: Aleksandra Fedorska A family waits at the platform of the train station in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine. It has now become a transit hub for women and children fleeing to Europe, while men return and travel to eastern Ukraine to defend the country. © Hesther Ng/dpa The rai


The railroad's importance in the war in Ukraine makes it part of the target

Created: 04/19/2022, 09:45 am

By: Aleksandra Fedorska

A family waits at the platform of the train station in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine.

It has now become a transit hub for women and children fleeing to Europe, while men return and travel to eastern Ukraine to defend the country.

© Hesther Ng/dpa

The railway connections in Ukraine, but also in the entire Eastern European region, are of considerable importance for the supply and evacuation of people in Ukraine.

  • The Ukrainian railways organize the supply and evaluation of the Ukrainian population

  • Belarusian acts of sabotage on the railway tracks have made it difficult for Russian troops to get supplies

  • The sanctions imposed on Russian and Belarusian goods are hitting Latvian railways hard

  • Ukrainian railways are optimistic about the future

Kyiv - The theaters of war in Afghanistan, Syria and also in Libya often showed long columns of trucks transporting people, troops, military equipment, but also aid supplies.

In Europe, where the railway network is very well developed, the railway workers have instead taken on a central role in logistics.

In the Ukraine* alone, the railways have a 22,000-kilometer rail network.

The English-language Kiev newspaper

The Kyiv Independent

wrote appreciatively of Ukraine's railways, Ukrzaliznytsia, for keeping the whole country running through the darkest moments.

The railway workers are fearless in the evacuation and rescue of millions of people in the Ukraine conflict*.

Ukraine railway transports dead Russians

The state-run Ukrzaliznytsia said on April 9 that it had evacuated 3.5 million people in the month and a half since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.

At the same time, according to the Telegram network, more than 470 thousand passengers were transported abroad by train.

"In just over a month, the Ukrzaliznytsia delivered over 8,000 tons of relief supplies."

wrote The Kyiv Independent.

The Ukrainian railways have also taken on another very difficult task, which revealed a particularly horrible side of the Russian army in this terrible war.

The fallen Russian soldiers were simply abandoned by their own comrades.

After all, it was the Ukrainian railways that took away the bodies of the killed aggressors.

The Ukraine War by Rail

The rail connections are a central element of logistics in the region, currently primarily war logistics.

It is therefore not surprising that the Ukrainians blew up the most important rail connections between Ukraine and Russia* in the first days of the war.

In doing so, they cut off important supply routes for the attackers.

The Russians also had problems with rail transport in Belarus, where the local railway workers sabotaged the rail connections in the direction of Ukraine at the request of the Ukrainians.

At times, these connections were even completely interrupted.

The Bielsat broadcaster reported that almost 40 Belarusian railway workers have now been arrested by the Lukashenko regime.

According to information from the Belarusian opposition, the protection of the rail connections in Belarus, which serve to supply the Russian troops, has been taken over by the Belarusian special troops since March 19.

War in Ukraine: Railway becomes a target of Russian attacks

Because of the enormous importance of the Ukrainian railway for the evacuation and protection of civilians, it is increasingly becoming a target for Russian attackers.

The shelling of the Kramatorsk train station and the killing of people trying to leave the area is just one of many examples of how Russia is trying to prevent the rescue of Ukrainian people.

The Latvian railways, on the other hand, have had a completely different impact from the war in Ukraine.

They have been in deep crisis since the Russian invasion.

The Latvian authorities have announced a significant decrease in goods transported by rail from Russia and Belarus.

This is due to the sanctions imposed on goods from Russia.

Due to the drop in goods imports from Russia, the Latvian authorities assume that the drop in goods transported by rail from Russia and Belarus could decrease by up to 85 percent.

There is also talk of redundancies in freight transport.

It is feared that 600 employees could be laid off.

The railway connections as lifelines of post-war reconstruction

Ukrzaliznytsia is already announcing that it will organize routes for the return of Ukrainians to their homeland after the end of hostilities.

The Latvian Railway also has hopes that after this crisis the situation could improve again in the future.

Latvians are particularly interested in trade relations with Kazakhstan.

The small Baltic country has been getting coal from Kazakhstan for around six months.

For their part, the Kazakhs are looking for alternatives to the Russian port in St. Petersburg.

The port of Riga has good prerequisites for this.

Other potential partners of Latvia could also come from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian republics.

However, it is unlikely that the previous handling volume from Russia and Belarus can be completely replaced in the medium term.

You can read the background to the Ukraine crisis* here.

*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

Aleksandra Fedorska

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-19

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