Exclusive: With Crimea Crippled, Russia Resorts to a Railroad

Once a Kremlin ‘red line’ for Ukrainian military action, Crimea has been hit so hard that it increasingly is defenseless.

AP, file
A helicopter drops water to stop a fire on the bridge connecting the Russian mainland and the Crimean peninsula over the Kerch Strait, October 8, 2022. AP, file

As Ukrainian cruise missiles and sea drones pound Crimea day after day, Russia quietly resorts to Plan B — building a 250-mile railroad to supply food, fuel and ammunition to its troops entrenched in southern Ukraine. Over the last decade, Russia turned Crimea into a vast aircraft carrier in the Black Sea. Two years ago, Russia used the peninsula as a springboard for its invasion of southern Ukraine.

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