Lukashenko began to fulfill Brzezinski's dream
In 2018, BC (Belarusian Railways) began the second stage of electrification of its main railway tracks in the Gomel region, which should be completed in 2020.
This time the contact network went towards Ukraine. This is the main section Zhlobin - Kalinkovichi - Slovechno.
As you know, after the events of 2014, the intensity of freight rail traffic between the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine not only did not decrease, but even increased. This is especially evident on the cross-border section Zhlobin - Kalinkovichi - Korosten, from which thematic sites receive more and more photographs with enviable regularity of heavy freight trains, most often transporting various petroleum products.
Summer 2019. A bulk train with petroleum products for Ukraine is underway.
At the same time, Ukraine has been involved in a protracted and tough confrontation with the Russian Federation for almost 6 years, with which, as we know, the Republic of Belarus has been in the so-called “Union State” for two decades.
The cunning multi-vector Belarusian dad does not miss the opportunity for his economic and political gain, despite the repeatedly proclaimed, usually in words, orientation primarily towards Russia.
Let us return, however, to the railway topic. It would seem that this is the case that we should rejoice - in the space of the former USSR, another section of the railway is being electrified, and even more so in the European part, on the territory of the union Belarus.
But if you look from Russia, then for some reason different conclusions come, because this time the contact network is being pulled towards anti-Russian Ukraine, with which our “ally and strategic partner of the Republic of Belarus” has been trading with increasing intensity all these years and even pretending to do so. that “in fraternal Ukraine everything is fine and there is no war.”
But this is nothing more than the beginning of the creation of a single electrified transport corridor in the alternating current standard, from the Black Sea (Odessa), through Belarus, to the ports on the Baltic, in the Baltic countries that are unfriendly to us.
Electrification of the Kalinkovichi junction station. Summer 2019.
In the Ukrainian Korosten, which is only 75 kilometers from the Belarusian border, electrification has existed for a very long time, since 1981. From the capital of Belarus, Minsk, towards Lithuania, the work has also been completed long ago, only this section remains and the unified electrified network of several states on the Russian standard gauge will finally be closed.
Let me explain especially for people who are far from railway topics - electric locomotive traction on the railway in the AC standard is much cheaper, and most importantly, the volume of cargo transported is much higher than when using diesel locomotives.
By the way, plans for the electrification of these highways existed back in the late USSR, but then we had a single country, with its capital in Moscow. And everything that is happening now, 30-35 years later, no one could have dreamed of in a nightmare.
And what is typical is that electrification is being pulled not towards Chernigov, where the distance from Gomel is only 100 kilometers, or to Bakhmach, where the distance is 170 km, but on the Zhlobin - Korosten section, more than 250 kilometers long.
View towards Slovechno, Kalinkovichi-Yuzhnye station. Winter 2018 – 2019.
But because the branches to Chernigov and Bakhmach became secondary after 2014, and the main cargo flow to Ukraine and back goes through Kalinkovichi - Ovruch along the Zhlobin - Korosten section. And it is precisely along this route, by coincidence, that the shortest transport corridor between the Baltic and Black Seas is obtained.
Perhaps I’m exaggerating too much, but it’s still not worth dismissing the prospects I’ve described. Because construction has not started in the direction of Russia. But they could, for example, to Unecha - Bryansk. This section is now very overloaded and converting it to electric traction would not harm both states - the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation.
A Chinese contractor is building electrification, so far only up to the Mozyr Oil Refinery (Barbarov station) and not very quickly, but then where? Logically, only to the Ukrainian Korosten, which is only a short distance away.
And in this regard, how can one not remember the still hypothetical Baltic-Black Sea arc, which Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalists and their Western patrons have long dreamed of. We are talking about creating a union of Eastern European states against Russia, which Brzezinski wrote about 30 years ago. But any union or bloc of states requires, first of all, good transport links.
In light of the Russian-Belarusian complications that have already become chronic and the logic of further developments, these plans may well be realized in the next 10-15 years.
A little, as they say, background. I am attaching a map that I published back in 2013, before the fateful events in Ukraine, when electrification was just underway from the Osipovichi station, not far from Minsk, to Zhlobin and Gomel.
The direction to Kalinkovichi was also announced then, but implementation began only recently. These lines are colored blue.
I then indicated with a green dotted line three promising lines towards Ukraine. To Chernigov, Bakhmach and Korosten. As it turned out, the direction to Korosten was chosen, the longest, but also the busiest.
In those years, this did not cause any controversial assessments. There was exactly a year left before the coup and war in Ukraine...
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