The Russian occupiers have dispatched a freight train from the port of Mariupol to Volnovakha.
Petro Andriuschenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, published the relevant video, the CFTS portal reports.
"The first train from the Mariupol port to the Volnovakha station left the port today. The first platform you see is for mine safety, to prevent the locomotive from being blown up. Also, a new batch of concrete reinforcements for fortifications between building panels was seen at the port," Andriuschenko said on 2 May.
"Given the pace of railway construction in the Hranitne area, it is difficult to view this news positively," Andriuschenko added.
As reported earlier, the occupiers are building a new railway branch line between the villages of Novoselivka and Burne. The first is near the Mariupol-Volnovakha-Donetsk railway line, and the second is on the branch leading to the Donetsk-Amvrosiivka-Taganrog (Russia) line.
The implementation of this plan will allow faster delivery of ammunition, reinforcements, heavy equipment, and weapons from Russia to Volnovakha, which is a junction station with direct connections to Tokmak via Polohy and Kamianka, the main population centers in the occupied part of the Zaporizhia region.
In addition, the new railway will enable Russians to transfer their forces quickly between the east and the south.
The railway from the Mariupol seaport to Donetsk passes through Volnovakha.
Near Hranitne, the village mentioned by the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, the Russian occupiers are building a railway bridge over the Kalmius River. This structure is intended to be part of the railway that the occupiers are building from the Rostov region of Russia. Thus, the Russian invaders are working on creating an overland railway route from Russia to the Crimea.
