Citing ‘reliable source,’ Interfax-AVN reports that Russia yesterday launched a new rail route bypassing Ukrainian territory.
“The main traffic along the Zhuravka-Millerovo section of this double-track railroad is open,” the source was quoted as saying by Interfax-AVN.
The Russian military began building a railway line to bypass Ukraine on its way from northern to southern Russia in April 2015 as tensions between Moscow and Kiev smolder.
Russians' ability to travel through Ukraine was reportedly complicated by a political clash between the two countries, precipitated by the overthrow of a Russia-friendly regime in Ukraine last year and Russia's ensuing annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The rail line is the first section of a planned 122.5-kilometer electric railway which will link northern Russia to the southeastern Russian cities of Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don.
The 18-kilometer section runs from the village of Zhuravka in the Voronezh oblast to Millerovo in the Rostov oblast.
