Expert: Russia seeks to build a "Azov Ring" - a road to Crimea through Mariupol

The Kremlin tried to implement this idea long before the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the occupation of Donetsk region, the expert said. Russia wanted to connect the territory of the Russian Federation with Crimea before the beginning of aggression in 2014, proposing to build a railway from Rostov-on-Don to Crimea, past Novoazovsk, Mariupol and Melitopol.

Pavel Lakichuk, the head of the Security Programs of the Center of Globalism in Focus, said this in the material "New goals for ATACMS. Why Russia builds a railway from Rostov to Crimea". "Even before 2014, when Crimea was not occupied, there were conversations about the so -called Azov ring.

At meetings on the Black Sea economic cooperation, Ukraine spoke of the" Black Sea ring ", and Russia was promoting its idea - to build a railway around the Azov Sea, as" Bridge Friendship "through the Kerch Strait. It was an attempt to tie Ukrainian Crimea to Russia," he says. Lakichuk explains Russia's arguments simply: Russian logistics is traditionally tied to rail. Motor transportation is quite limited. And in the case of the Russian army it is noticeable.