Russia redirects its trains through Ukraine's Luhansk region again due to problems with the bypass railroad
Russia again routed trains through the Zhuravka and Millerovo area in the Luhansk region of Ukraine due to problems with the bypass railroad , which opened in 2017, as announced by the Ukrainian MP , Dmytro Tymchuk.
"The joke is that after all the amazing reports and serious launch by the Russians of trains "bypassing Ukraine," as of February 2018 it turns out that Russian trains have returned to the "old" railroad. As before, they are going through Ukraine. Such an extreme "railway failure" for Moscow," Tymchuk wrote on Facebook.
LB.ua news outlet later confirmed, citing from an informed source, that Russian freight trains did return to the old railroad.
Tymchuk claims that because of the rush, Russian railway workers did not lay the railroad correctly. "They built a new railroad stretch in such a way that it is simply impossible to use it, in particular, very soon after the opening it was found out that the constructed drainage systems were faulty and the railway track sagged by up to 1 meter," he said.
"According to railway workers, in the spring, the situation with the new railway will deteriorate even more due to flooding," the MP predicts.
That part of the "old" branch of the Russian railway is laid through the territory of the Luhansk region and crosses over the Russian-Ukrainian border several times.
In 2014, the Russian Federation announced plans to build a new 18-kilometer railroad, bypassing Ukraine. The Russian military started work in accordance with the agreement with Russian Railways a year later. The railroad stretch was put into operation in the summer of 2017.
In 2012, Russia offered to move the border of Ukraine in this area, but this idea was not supported.