Russian forces brigades of railway troops ahead of a year finished a major infrastructure project — the railroad to the South, bypassing Ukraine. For the construction of spent a lot of money, but Ukraine has lamented that Russia will work with this site even more. And Ukraine, respectively, will lose.
The Ministers of defence and transport Minister Sergei Shoigu and Minister of transport Maxim Sokolov participated Monday in the opening ceremony of the road in Zaitsivka is one of the stations on the new section zhuravka — Millerovo. The new station Shoigu attached the order of Zhukov to the flag of the 39th brigade is the division, stationed in the Voronezh region, and built the road. The brigade was the first Union of railway troops, was given the prestigious award in the postwar period.
Maxim Sokolov said that the constructed road will strengthen the independence of Russia, will provide “high-speed pass of passenger and freight trains in the direction South”. According to Sokolov, the project cost was initially $ 56.6 billion rubles. The branch planned to build in three years — by 2018. But the schedule was able to stay ahead for the whole year.
Here trains will go at speeds up to 160 kilometers per hour, said “RG” head of the South-Eastern railway Anatoliy Volodko. “The station will take 48 trains a day and three pairs of trains. We have to configure the dynamic auto-block system — this technology works only on the Moscow ring” — he explained.
The operations were conducted by the military engineers of the Western, southern and Central military districts, a spokesman for the defense Ministry major General Igor Konashenkov, worked in a total of 1,700 military, involving more than 700 units of special equipment. It is possible to get ahead of schedule. According to him, it is planned to build seven railway stations and five substations and complete electrification of the branch. The total length of the road is 137 km, and taking into account the double track structure is 274 km away.
Recall that the order of Zhukov was established in 1994, is awarded including enterprises, units of the Russian Armed forces, other troops, military formations and bodies. The reason for the awards can be not only feats and differences in fights, in operations to maintain international peace and counterterrorism operations, but also high performance in combat training.
As explained Konashenkov, awarded to the team previously participated in the reconstruction of railway lines in Chechnya and Abkhazia. So, in 1994-1996 and in 1998-2000, a detachment, composed of officers and warrant officers of management teams, companies mining and other units of the brigade participated in mine clearance and the rehabilitation of the railway network in Chechnya and neighboring regions, which was destroyed during the war.
In Ukraine, one abandoned branch will be more
As you know, the Ukrainian railroad, which Russia is now bypassed, is almost never used since the beginning of fighting in Donbass. “There’s three years there is no movement. Trains are much further to the East for 100 km, instead of going to the Lugansk region”, — said the newspaper VIEW, General Director of research Agency “Infranews” Alexei Bezborodov.
Meanwhile, in the Soviet era Railways of Russia and Ukraine were a single system. Then the message between the center of the country and the Caucasus went through the Kharkov transportation hub. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the situation started to change. Most of the cargo went through Voronezh, for the branch that were previously considered auxiliary. The load on the path increases, but to train through Russian territory was cheaper than paying for the use of foreign site. The only section of the Ukrainian roads, which Russia has refused, is 37 km in Luhansk region. Ukrainian station Zorynivka, as well as the railway line was leased to the Railways.
Projects for the construction of railway bypassing Ukraine considered before 2014. But the plans have remained plans: the urgent need for them. Intense construction began in 2015. Ride through the neighboring Republic became politically and physically dangerous. Still, the line of contact between the armed forces of Ukraine and LNR lies relatively close to the railway (in fact, so traffic on it was discontinued).
Of spent on the construction of 57 billion rubles (i.e. about $ 1 billion) 9 billion to laying the leaf length of 140 km. the Rest is the cost of construction of stations and related infrastructure. Given that the Ukrainian branch, held through the Luhansk region, was sufficiently loaded, it can be assumed that these costs will be repaid relatively quickly. Bezborodov noted that the exact data we do not know.
“Railways are not reporting on individual road sections, in terms of income and expenses. For this simple reason there are areas of extremely unprofitable, there is heavy-traffic and profitable” — he said the newspaper VIEW. According to Bezborodov, potentially, the money spent on construction can fend for 4-5 years.
Yevhen Chervonenko, head of the Ministry of transport and communications of Ukraine under President Viktor Yushchenko, earlier in the Ukrainian TV channel NewsOne was estimated at the astronomical sum of 1.6 billion dollars, the loss of Kiev from launching a new road. The ex-Minister hoped that Russia will finish the bypass area only two years later (this was the original project).
“In 2019, Russia will be completed the railway to bypass Ukraine — minus $ 1.6 billion, he said. — Figures — annual loss or annual price of freedom for all the years from 2019. Russia will consider themselves free, however, to be a little richer.”
Ukrainian Railways will become even poorer
However, in conversation with a reporter of the newspaper LOOK Chervonenko called more modest data.
“I warned that if we continue this policy, we will stay in the trash, we lose transit. With me, Minister, when we had an understanding with Russia, the European transit via Ukraine had 5 million tons per month, today — 250 thousand,”
— said the former Minister. Experts believe that the former Minister is still exaggerated, the loss of Kiev. “Of course, the $ 1.6 billion loss is too much” — said Ukrainian economist Oleksandr Okhrimenko. In conversation with the newspaper VIEW, he noted that before the war the income from Russian transit through this area was of the order of 200-300 million dollars a year. “For Ukraine, the main thing here is not the loss, and precedent. The country was spared. Other economic partners as well treat us”, fears Okhrimenko.
As noted by the referee, after 2014 this dangerous stretch of road through the Luhansk region is still used by some Russian company — at your own risk.
“Pay some Russian companies that wanted to take transit through Ukraine. The money was not too large, about 70-80 million dollars annually,” he said. So the only one who will be seriously affected due to the construction of the Russian detour, will be the residents of Zarisovki and other Russian and Ukrainian settlements through which passed the now unnecessary railway. These people remain without work, said the Russian expert.
However, they are so lost most of earnings with the cessation of active movements after 2014, so we can say that their loss will not be significant.