According to advisor to the mayor of Mariupol Pyotr Andryushchenko, the railway should start operating approximately at the end of May or at the beginning of June.
The Russians have almost completed work on the construction of the railway, which should connect the temporarily captured Mariupol with Rostov-on-Don. Advisor to the Mariupol mayor Petr Andryushchenko stated this on the Espresso TV channel.
He noted that during April and early May, eyewitnesses recorded three test trains from the occupied Volnovakha Donetsk region to the port in Mariupol and in the opposite direction. At the same time, they arrived from Volnovakha loaded with kaolin and ore, which are being loaded onto a Liberian ship stolen last year.
“And the train left the Mariupol port completely empty in order to test the track,” Andryushchenko noted.
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According to him, the tracks that the Russian invaders continue to build near the village of Granitnoye through the Telmanovsky district, connecting Mariupol with Volnovakha and Rostov-on-Don, have actually been completed, both on the bridges and at the junction of the railways there are no rails.
Pyotr Andryushchenko added that the railway should start operating approximately at the end of May or at the beginning of June.
Back in September 2023, Andryushchenko reported on an attempt by Russian invaders to build a direct railway connection with Mariupol, Volnovakha and Donetsk. Then the official reported that if successful, this would make it possible to include the existing Mariupol-Aslanovo-Kalchik-Volnovakha branch into direct communication with the Russian Taganrog and Rostov-on-Don.
On May 2, it became known that the occupiers had completed the construction of the railway from captured Mariupol. Moreover, on the same day the first train left for the Volnovakha station.
Also March 18 Focus wrote that the Russian authorities reported the supposed completion of the construction of a railway that would connect Rostov-on-Don with Mariupol and Berdyansk.
