A 30-kilometer-long "tsar-train" collected in Donetsk Region could have been created as a defensive line against future Ukrainian offensives.
This is reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and DeepState.
In the message of the DeepState Telegram channel, it is said that a continuous construction of freight cars stretches along the line from the railway station in Olenivka to Volnovakha and has about 2,100 cars of different types.
"This is a very specific engineering construction, the effectiveness of which is difficult to assess. The idea is clear - an obstacle to the advance of the Defense Forces. It can be considered as a separate line of defense, because it is extremely difficult to damage, move or explode a 30-kilometer-long mass of metal, and the movement of equipment due to such an obstacle is impossible without breaking through the corridor," the message states.
It is noted that satellite images from May 10, 2023 and February 6 and 10, 2024 show the following: over the past nine months, Russian troops have built a long line of cars, stretching from occupied Olenivka to Volnovakha.
The general scale of this formation is visible on radar images.
It is reported that the construction of this structure began in July 2023. The rolling stock stolen from the temporarily occupied territories could have been used for its construction.
It is worth noting that the rail line between Olenivka and Volnovakha is located approximately 6 kilometers from the front line, which ISW estimates to be southeast of Novomykhailivka and was on a relatively inactive area of the frontline at the time when Russian forces began construction.