The Crimean Land Corridor

An alternative to the Kerch Bridge, which is constantly under attack by Ukrainian drones, the road and rail link between the peninsula and the Donetsk region is taking on an increasingly strategic role. This opens up not only immediate prospects, but also long-term ones.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - For several months now, the Russian railway transport agency has been boasting about a historic event: the arrival in Crimea in spring of the first train through Novorossiya, the term used by Russians for the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, which now regularly stop in Dzhankoy after passing through Mariupol, Melitopol and Kherson.

This is what is known as the Crimean “Land Corridor”, which offers an alternative to the Kerch Bridge, the grandiose project built by Vladimir Putin after the annexation of the peninsula in 2014, but which remains under constant threat from Ukrainian drones.

The new land route thus connects the occupied part of the Donetsk region, which the Russians call the “DNR republic”, with that of Zaporizhzhia and on to Crimea. In reality, a railway already existed on this route under Ukraine, and has now been “renovated” and expanded by the Russians, although it is unclear what kind of work has been carried out, apart from the necessary restoration following the armed clashes and bombing.

The Donetsk hub was already quite important, and after the renovation it has become decidedly strategic, so much so that some parts of its route are in fact “classified” and are not shown on maps.

Transport was highly developed in this industrial region, with many mines and factories, most of which are now closed and inactive, and specific routes for production areas. According to official Russian information, “many freight trains” loaded with containers are now arriving in Sevastopol, without specifying their contents. After all, rail transport has increased significantly worldwide over the last 15 years, and the Russians have a great need for it, as they are unable to use fast sea routes, more for military operations than for the needs of the population.

The Ukrainians are uncertain about the drone attacks on railway carriages, which are bombed if they are transporting tanks, evidently containing fuel, while the invisible cargo could be civilian materials and products, the destruction of which is clearly not desirable or useful for military purposes.

The Russians have invested many billions of roubles in rebuilding the roads and railways of this corridor, which for all purposes is more vital than the great Asian routes such as the Trans-Siberian or the Baikal-Amur Mainline, the great Russian variants of the “Silk Road” since the time of the tsars.

In addition to military cargo, various types of products and goods are transported, including shipments of grain and other materials “stolen” from Ukraine. Putin himself declared in March 2024 the need to reopen the land route as “an alternative to the Crimean bridge, so that we can move forward together, hand in hand, not in words but in deeds, and this will make us much stronger”.

The Kerch Bridge had already been hit several times, the airports were closed and there was a constant threat of Ukrainian underwater drones at sea. Without the land corridor, Crimea risks remaining effectively separated from Russia, while also suffering the consequences of the military conflict.

However, trains can protect themselves from drones with “defensive nets”, as Tatar-Crimean politician and military expert Eskender Bariev points out, thanks to a major restructuring project that has led to the complete rebuilding of the area's railways, as confirmed by British intelligence services.

The urgent needs dictated by the phases of the endless war between Russia and Ukraine in Crimea, which has always been the dividing line between the two parts of the “Russian world”, therefore open up not only immediate but also long-term prospects, given the strategic importance of the peninsula for relations with the Mediterranean, which in times of peace could offer great commercial, tourist and cultural opportunities that are yet to be rediscovered.