Even as Russia attacks eastern Ukraine with heavy artillery, it is strengthening its grip in the south, claiming to have restored roads, railway tracks and a vital freshwater channel that could help it win. permanent dominion in the region.
Russia’s infrastructure expansion into the occupied south could allow Moscow to forge a “land bridge” between Russia and Crimea and build on its push for control through the introduction of money. currency of Russia and appointing proxies.
Russian Defense Minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, say on Tuesday that the army, in cooperation with Russian Railways, repaired about 750 miles of tracks in southeastern Ukraine and established conditions for traffic from Russia through the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to the occupied territory of Kherson and Crimea.
Mr. Shoigu also said that water once again flows to Crimea via North Crimean Canal – an important source of fresh water that Ukraine cut off in 2014 after the Kremlin annexed the peninsula. Mr. Shoigu stated that now car traffic is clear between the “mainland” of Russia and Crimea.
Mr. Shoigu’s claims about the roads and tracks being restored could not be immediately verified.
Satellite images reviewed by The New York Times show that water flowing through parts of the canal in Crimea had dried up until March. Russian engineers cleared the blockage in the canal in late February, days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Ukrainian officials were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
The North Crimean Canal, a 250-mile engineering wonder built during the Soviet era, carried water from Ukraine’s Dnipro River to the arid Crimean peninsula until President Vladimir Putin seized it in 2014.
After the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine dropped sandbags and clay into the canal to prevent the Russian occupiers from benefiting from the precious source of fresh water.
Instead of flowing to Crimea, the canal is used to irrigate the fields of melons and peach orchards in the Kherson region of Ukraine to the north.
Ukrainian officials say that cutting off water is one of the few levers they can use to inflict pain on Russia without using military force.
For the Kremlin, the congestion presents a complex and costly infrastructure challenge, with Crimeans chronically short of water and having to turn off taps from time to time.
When Putin massively deployed troops on the Ukrainian border last year, some analysts speculated that the canal was one of the solutions the Kremlin wanted.
Even as Russia looks to gain control in the south this week, a secret battle appeared inside the occupied areas, involving Kremlin loyalists, the Russian occupation forces, Ukrainian parties and the Ukrainian military.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian media posted video of what they said was an explosion at a cafe in the occupied city of Kherson, which was once a gathering place for collaborators with Russian forces. Russian state media described it as an act of “terrorism”.
It was the latest in a series of attacks targeting Russian supporters and proxies. It comes amid reports – most of which cannot be independently verified – of Ukrainian guerrillas blowing up bridges, targeting railway lines used by Russian forces and killing them. dead Russian soldiers on patrol.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the President of Ukraine, says that there is a concentrated guerrilla movement active in the south. “Parties are fighting very actively,” he said on his YouTube channel.
In the east, where both armies are fighting for control, Ukrainian officials are weighing Will they withdraw their forces? in the city of Sievierodonetsk, the last major battleground of the Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region.
Sievierodonetsk has come under weeks of Russian shelling, and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called the city and its neighbour, Lysychansk, on Monday a “dead city”, physically devastated and There are almost no civilians.
“The fighting is still raging and no one will give up the city, even if our troops have to retreat to stronger positions,” said Serhiy Haidai, the Ukrainian military governor of the Luhansk region. know on Ukrainian television, according to Reuters.
Moscow’s announcement of expanding ties with the occupied south is certain to be welcomed in Ukraine as further proof of Russia’s determination to divide Ukraine and seize natural resources.
“Russia is trying to build,” said Mykhailo Samus, deputy director of international affairs at the Center for Military Studies, Transformation and Disarmament, a research group in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. infrastructure for military supply.
“Maybe they try to steal agricultural products, food products from the occupied territories,” he added.
Russian authorities say the first train has traveled from the occupied city of Melitopol to Crimea to carry grain, which Ukrainian officials say was stolen from Ukrainian farmers forced to deliver crops. their money for money or nothing at all.
Russia has blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports since the start of the war, trapping more than 20 million tons of grain destined for export and exacerbating a global food crisis. The Ukrainian Grain Association said on Wednesday that the long-term outlook is dim, grain cellars in Ukraine are still half full, the Ukrainian Grain Association said on Wednesday, raising the possibility that most This year’s crop may be left in the fields.
On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey held talks focused on allowing Ukrainian grains to access global markets through the Black Sea.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov downplayed the issue, calling the global food disaster caused by Russia’s blockade a Western exaggeration.
“The current situation has nothing to do with the food crisis,” Lavrov told a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish capital. “The Russian Federation does not create any obstacles to the passage of ships.”
He blamed Ukraine, saying naval mines and refusal to use humanitarian corridors provided by Russia on sea lanes in the Black Sea had brought exports to a halt.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu disagreed, saying there was a global problem, but it involved both Russian and Ukrainian products.
“The world food crisis is a real crisis,” Cavusoglu said, noting that Russia and Ukraine together provide about a third of the world’s grain production.
Cavusoglu said that a mechanism is needed to bring not only agricultural products from Ukraine through the Black Sea, but also Russian fertilizers, which are so important to global agriculture.
The answer, he suggests, lies in a United Nations proposal that the international community provide guarantees for shipments that address security concerns on both sides.
Ukraine was not invited to the talks in Ankara, and their governments and Russia both blame each other for the lack of exports.
Two countries usually provide about 40% of wheat demand in Africaaccording to the United Nations.
Ukrainian officials strongly cast doubt on Putin’s promise, which Mr. Lavrov has repeated, that if the ports were shut down, Russia would not exploit them to send an invasion fleet. Russian warships have also patrolled shipping lanes in the Black Sea.
Oleksii Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, say on Twitter on Wednesday, “Our position on grain supply is clear: security first.” He accused Russia of “creating artificial obstacles to capturing markets and blackmailing Europe for food shortages”.
The US cited satellite images of cargo ships to accuse Russia robbed Ukraine’s wheat warehouse that this country exportedmainly to Africa, echoing accusations by the Ukrainian government that Russia has stolen up to 500,000 tons of wheat, worth $100 million, since invading Ukraine in February.
Wheat is not Ukraine’s only resource. As Ukraine prepares for what promises to be a difficult winter, Zelensky said the country will not sell gas or coal abroad. “All production activities in the country will be directed to the internal needs of citizens,” he said.
Report contributed by Valerie Hopkins, Ivan Nechepurenko, Malachy Browne, Neil MacFarquhar, Safak Timur and Anushka Patil.
