The Moldovan railway has become a weapon against Russia
Moldova's railway network has become an instrument of war, and Chisinau is actively using it to support the warring Ukraine.
The volume of deliveries through the Moldovan “piece of iron” has increased so much that Russia has moved from hints and warnings to missile strikes. So far only at adjacent railway junctions on the territory of Ukraine.
Not only humanitarian
Russian "Calibers" began to fly directly near the Moldovan border. They hit exclusively Ukrainian targets: the road-railway bridge across the Dniester estuary, other railway infrastructure facilities in the vicinity of Reni, Odessa and others. All goals have one thing in common - they are linked to the Moldovan railway network built back in Soviet times.
The Moldovan authorities, discussing military actions in Ukraine, have repeatedly spoken about their neutrality. However, at the same time, Chisinau could not or did not want to remain completely indifferent to its partner in the Euro-associative trio. Since mid-March, the Moldovan railway infrastructure has been actively used for supplies to Kyiv.
In the first weeks, trains with fuel and lubricants moved exclusively at night, and hid at intermediate stations during the day. After the death of the cruiser "Moscow", the drivers stopped being shy - eyewitnesses talk about round-the-clock train traffic.
Initially, it was assumed that Moldova would only allow the delivery of fuel and lubricants, as well as coal, across its territory. In the end, the neutrality enshrined in the Constitution is quite picky about the range of goods sent by one of the warring parties. On the other hand, official Chisinau, contrary to its declared neutrality, immediately took the position of providing all possible information and political support for Ukraine.
As it turned out, not only political. In the end, the speaker of the Odessa Regional Military Administration, Bratchuk, blurted out in one of his live shows that “a large volume of military and humanitarian cargo goes through the territory of Moldova to Ukraine.”
The track is wide, the track is narrow...
The importance of the Moldovan railway is also that it is a buffer between Ukraine and Romania. The latter, being a member of NATO, did not declare neutrality and built several hubs on its territory for sorting, loading and sending aid to Ukraine from other countries in the Balkan region and Europe. The main hubs are in Suceava and, the largest, in Galati. In the latter of them, it is possible to directly transship containers with cargo from ships in the port - onto railway tracks, into trains. And from there there is a direct route through Moldova to the Odessa region.
The only problem on this section is the difference in the track. Ukrainian railway workers were forced to switch cars from narrow-gauge chassis to wide-gauge ones at the intermediate station in Reni - to the CIS standard. This logistical hiccup was so slowing down the delivery of critical goods that it was the subject of a special meeting organized in mid-April by the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina-Ioana Valyan. The ministers of transport and infrastructure of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine took part in it.
The meeting ended with Brussels' decision to allocate funds to Bucharest for the restoration and modernization of the broad gauge railway from Galati towards Ukraine and Moldova. Officially, this step is explained by the need to help Ukraine with grain exports.
In fact, the European Union took these measures on the eve of the second phase of the Russian military offensive in the Donbass, when Kyiv is hysterically asking for increased supplies of ammunition, weapons, armored vehicles and artillery.
Weapons for war
The decision to concentrate efforts in the Romanian Galati in the face of Ukraine's dire need for military supplies may seem strange. After all, the largest countries of the Balkan Peninsula, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, refused to provide Kyiv with any military-technical support. But this is only at first glance.
The Bulgarian government has established a special Fund for Assistance to Ukraine, the funds of which Kyiv will be able to spend on purchasing weapons - in Bulgaria itself. The Romanian government is analyzing and preparing to pass a law that will allow the supply of weapons from its own reserves. Most importantly, the modernization of the logistics hub in Galati allows one of the main suppliers of weapons to Kyiv, including high-tech weapons, Turkey, to expand the range of supplies and increase their volume.
All this will be delivered to the Ukrainian military via the Moldovan railway and, accordingly, raises questions about how literally Chisinau adheres to its declared neutrality status.
Moldova 's Railways Have Become a Weapon Against Russia