Michael Peck
Ukraine's Kursk offensive has done more than seize a Los Angeles-size territory and embarrass Russia. It also appears to be disrupting Russia's railroad system. And if the US accedes to Ukrainian demands to allow deeper strikes into Russia using American-made rockets, Russia's ability to move troops and supplies could be seriously damaged.
Much more so than in Western armies, Russia depends on railroads to transport troops and supplies rather than using trucks. Russian units don't have the organic transport capacity to operate far from railheads. The problem today is that assembling forces from around Russia — some 30,000 troops, according to Ukrainian estimates — to seal off the Ukrainian penetration is overloading rail stations in the Kursk area and creating shortages of locomotives.
BelZhD, the union representing Belarusian railway workers, announced that as of August 12, Russian railway authority had asked its Belarusian counterpart not to dispatch trains to stations on the Orel-Kursk lines. This essentially severs rail links between Belarus and Russia.
"There is an accumulation of a large number of 'abandoned' trains (according to code 12 - the lack of a locomotive) at the stations of the Smolensk region of the Moscow Railway," the Belarusian union said.
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