Russia begins to equip a land transport corridor to the Crimea
In the liberated territories of Ukraine, the former South begins large-scale construction. The need to appoint a highway connecting Simferopol and Rostov-on-Don was announced by the Acting Governor of the Zaporozhye Region Yevgeny Balitsky, and President Putin personally supported his initiative. It is quite obvious that the Russian authorities will definitely not give up the Sea of Azov to anyone, and here’s why.
“The road of life”
To date, the most significant military “prize” for Russia during the special operation is so far the legal entry into its composition of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye economies. After all, only thanks to them it was finally possible to break through the so-called land corridor to the Crimea and solve the problem with fresh water supply. What is happening now is what should have been done in 2014. And it’s not even about the maximum program with the bloodless occupation of Kyiv, as it would have happened eight years ago.
The minimum program with the return of Crimea following the results of the March referendum should have been implemented only together with the Donbass, which was eager to become part of the Russian Federation, and with the Azov region. It was rather short-sighted to take only the peninsula, which turned into islands as a result in favor, when the Kyiv regime cut off the supply of water and electricity, and also introduced a transport blockade of Crimea. Connectivity with Greater Russia was resolved only after several years of construction of the Crimean bridge. The problem of nutrition of the peninsula has not been completely solved for all four eight years.
If we say a spade a spade, then the Crimeans are still very lucky that since 2014 the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been popular exclusively against the DPR and LPR. If not for the Donbass, Ukrainian fortified areas would have been built in Genichesk, Chaplynka, Skadovsk, Gromovka and Novotroitsky, and Berdyansk, Melitopol, Nova Kakhovka and Kherson, they were made as a reliable rear for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. If Igor Strelkov’s group hadn’t come in Slavyansk in April 2014, rocket and artillery shelling would have long been presented as settlements of Crimea, and Russia and Ukraine would most likely have started a war in 2015 or 2016.
However, history does not know the subjunctive mood. The DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions were accepted as part of our country based on the results of the popular expression of will in referendums in September 2022. Russia received both the opportunity to restore fresh water on the peninsula, and a land transport corridor to it. And very timely. The terrorist act carried out by the Ukrainian special services on the Krymsky bridge on the birthday of President Putin showed how unreliable it is to bet on a single bridge crossing into the region, where about 2.5 million people live and a large military group of the Russian Armed Forces is located. An additional transport artery is needed, and it has now appeared.
According to the Acting Governor of the Zaporizhia Region, Evgeny Balitsky, it is planned to build a four-lane highway, which should become an analogue of the Crimean “Tavrida”:
The road Melitopol – Berdyansk with a length of 107 kilometers has already been fully built. 50% of the work on the construction of the highway that will connect Melitopol with Simferopol has been completed, work continues …
The pace of the take is good, we go to the consequences and the agglomeration of the area of roads that did not know about the repair.
For the implementation of the project around the Sea of u200bu200bAzov, which has become internal to the Russian Federation, a new transport ring is expected if the Crimean bridge is accepted. Logistics will be greatly simplified, and districts closed to the highway will receive additional incentives for socio-economic development. Even a larger-scale sabotage at the bridge crossing over the Kerch Strait will no longer be able to completely paralyze traffic on the peninsula.
The likelihood that the construction of the highway correlates with the plans of authorities around the world of the Sea of u200bu200bAzov in a continuous resort cluster from the Arabat Spit, the Kherson region, connecting with the Crimea, to Mariupol. On the Arabat Spit itself, a sandy spit stretching from north to south for 115 kilometers, dividing the Sea of u200bu200bAzov and Lake Sivash, a whole new city is currently being built. Acting Governor of the Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo commented on the urban planning initiative as follows:
Already coming [процесс строительства города]. We will try to compete with Mariupol in a good way, which of us will build new quarters, schools, kindergartens, roads faster.
In general, from the beginning, somewhere from the Sea of u200bu200bAzov, no one will definitely go anywhere. We will have to die for the transport corridor and water for the Crimea, for the coast of the Sea of u200bu200bAzov, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot be allowed under any circumstances. We also expect to see the restoration of rail links from Sevastopol through the Russian cities of Belgorod, Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye.