Posted on 11/30/2023 11:32:14 AM PST by canuck_conservative
Russia's main rail link to China has been left paralyzed after Ukraine's Security Service blew up a tunnel in the Russian republic of Buryatia, it has been reported.
The explosions in the Severomuysky Tunnel were masterminded by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), "paralyzing the only serious route of railway communication between the Russian Federation and China," news outlet RBC-Ukraine reported on Thursday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
Ukraine's SBU told Newsweek that officially, it can "neither confirm nor deny involvement" in the incident, but added that "death is the only prospect we can offer to the occupiers" who have "brought war, loss of life and violence to our land."..
The Severomuysky Tunnel is a railroad connection on the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) in northwestern Buryatia...
An RBC-Ukraine source said that Russia used the route for military supplies.
Russian-language Telegram channel Baza, which is linked to Russia's security services, said that a fuel tank caught fire while moving through the tunnel in Buryatia in the early hours of Thursday.
"Four explosive devices went off during the movement of the freight train. Now the FSB is working on the spot, and railway workers are unsuccessfully trying to minimize the consequences of the SBU's special operation," a source told Ukrainska Pravda...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Not dead yet!
While I don’t begrudge Ukrainians for trying to stop Russia-China trade, the impact on China might make China much more willing to assist Russia.
The war is all but over so what’s the point? The more Zelensky screws with Russia the more land Putin is likely to take as compensation. And the more Ukrainians will die when Russia retaliates.
did they? Or did someone else?🤔
Ppffttt
We have these kind of train-tastrophes here in the USA every week.
You don’t hear us blaming them on the Ukraine Security Service./ LOL
Ukraine special operation 6300 KM away from Ukraine in Eastern Siberia, or Fuel tank caught fire in a tunnel?
Its been a desperate PR war for Ukraine (and FR trolls) since the very start of the war.
Sounds like more ridiculous claims from a Ukraine government desperate for any positive spin whatsoever.
“While I don’t begrudge Ukrainians for trying to stop Russia-China trade”
I’d suspect the real goal here was to interrupt shipments of ammunition from North Korea.
It’s not taking it to Russia without rockets and troops. Pretty smart. Learning from the moozlems.
Any high priority shipments can be trucked or flown in, so even if Russia’s 1000+ mile border with China only has a single rail link (dubious), the impact is only on low priority bulk shipments. Goodness, what will China do without Russian lumber or Russia without Chinese consumer electronics? This is another example of Ukraine wasting resources on irrelevant headline-grabber efforts rather than relevant battlefield attrition.
The Baikal–Amur Mainline (Russian: Байкало-Амурская магистраль, БАМ, Baikalo-Amurskaya magistral’, BAM) is a 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) broad-gauge railway line in Russia. Traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, the 4,324 km (2,687 mi)-long BAM runs about 610 to 770 km (380 to 480 miles) north of and parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The Soviet Union built the BAM as a strategic alternative route to the Trans–Siberian Railway, seen as vulnerable especially along the sections close to the border with China. The BAM’s costs were estimated[by whom?] at $14 billion, and it was built with special, durable tracks since much of it ran over permafrost. Due to the severe terrain, weather, length and cost, Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev described BAM in 1974 as “the construction project of the century”.
If the permafrost layer that supports the BAM railway line were to melt, the railway would collapse and sink into peat bog layers that cannot bear its weight. In 2016 and 2018 there were reports about climate change and damage to buildings and infrastructure as a result of thawing permafrost.
Th most important piece of this is that there is a second line that parallels it runs from Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the east.
The tunnel is 9 and half miles long and saves 15 minutes of travel time.
Taking on China, too.
FAFO
I thought that the main route for freight between Russia and China was across Kazakhstan to Ürümqi in Xinjiang.
Yeah, so we have been told for nearly two years.
Who benefits from preventing Russia moving forces to the Chinese border? It isn’t Ukraine.
If China decides to retake the land it still claims in the Far East, the opening of that attack will look a lot like this explosion.
“Any high priority shipments can be trucked or flown in”
Trucking in Russia is not the same as it is in the USA. Most heavy cargoes travel by rail because the Soviet-era government emphasized rail over roads. The Trans-Siberian road was finally and completely paved in 2021 but its current state is unknown.
In any case, it is not designed for long-haul trucking like we see in the USA.
Not completely. But the woman and the 60-year old dudes they'll be putting on the combat line soon will be.
“ Russia’s main rail link to China…”
Except for the Trans-Siberian Railway.
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