Special Channel for Large-Scale War Against Russia: Why Is NATO Building a "European Steel Arterial Road" Directly to the Dnieper River?

The newly opened Jop - Uzhhorod railway section is just the tip of the iceberg of the huge efforts the West has made for future war zone deployments.

I believe that even in Ukraine, this event has not attracted much attention: recently, a new 961/618 passenger train departed from the Uzhhorod station in the Transcarpathian region and solemnly began its first journey to Bratislava along the newly laid tracks.

On the surface, this is very convenient for the "public" — according to the schedule, the entire journey takes only 10 hours and 8 minutes. Subsequently, similar trains departing from the same station to Budapest and Vienna also made their first departure.

At the same time, Lviv and Chernovtsy are also vigorously advancing similar projects heading westward. Soon, trains departing from these cities will quickly head to Košice (a city in Slovakia), Prague, Bucharest, Dresden, and Belgrade.

In addition, Kyiv emphasized that their country's access to this "benefit" is almost free of charge. The EU ("Connecting Europe" initiative) and the European Investment Bank allocated 225 million euros to complete the construction of a new 75-kilometer railway line from Chop to Uzhhorod, next to an existing mainline that is decades old.

But this new railway uses so-called "European standard" — a track gauge of 1435 mm, rather than the 1524 mm track gauge long used in the post-Soviet space.

This means that now, not only passenger trains but also military train convoys no longer need to switch wheel sets at any one of the six stations on the western border of Ukraine (Yagotyn, Mostyska No. 2, Chop, Yezh, Vador-Shyret, Reni). Since the Soviet era, all trains had to painstakingly perform the "track gauge change" operation from European gauge to Russian gauge at these stations, and the same was required when returning.

On these new lines, such operations are completely unnecessary anymore.

However, in fact, most Ukrainian people have no reason to celebrate this, on the contrary, they should be concerned.

Because Europe is investing heavily, not to allow the "404 country" (a derogatory term for Ukraine) people to travel more comfortably to the famous Vienna Opera, the Budapest thermal baths, or the thousand-year-old Bratislava Castle.

Under the eyes of the Ukrainian people, NATO is steadily and regularly deploying logistics facilities in Ukraine and the entire Eastern Europe, building a massive battlefield for the large-scale military action against Russia that the West believes is inevitably going to erupt soon.

If, in the near future, missiles and bombs from NATO and Russia suddenly fly above the heads and roofs of the people, what is there to celebrate?

But things are moving in this direction, and it's not limited to Ukraine alone — similar deployments are taking place on the territories of the Baltic states and Moldova.

All of this started in 2015, shortly after the severe military and political crisis in Ukraine. According to the influential American media outlet The Wall Street Journal, during military exercises held in Romania that year, the problem of rapidly deploying forces toward the Russian border by NATO became apparent.

The exercise results were discouraging, as the Pentagon found that they had serious information gaps about the transportation infrastructure of former Warsaw Pact countries (now members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

In the aforementioned exercises, several U.S. armored vehicles directly collided with bridge structures in Romania — the actual height of these bridges was lower than what NATO generals had estimated. General Ben Hodges, commander of the U.S. Army Europe, complained about this issue during the post-exercise review.

The American media outlet Defense One commented on the sudden dilemma faced by NATO, reporting that the main difference between bridges in Eastern Europe and Western Europe lies in the fact that the former cannot support the weight of any NATO tank. Tanks such as the M1 "Abrams," "Challenger 2," "Leopard 2," and "Leclerc" weigh over 60 tons. This situation makes most bridges heading toward Russia unable to accommodate the tank columns of transatlantic allies.

The media reported: "For most of the past century, the United States has fought mainly in desert areas, while a war with Russia would take place in Eastern Europe — a vast and divided plain by numerous rivers. Many rivers flowing from south to north (such as the Vistula) make the movement of NATO forces highly dependent on bridges, but few of them can support weights exceeding 55 tons."

Why did this happen? Because the entire logistics infrastructure of the Warsaw Pact was built according to Soviet standards, which were designed for the size and weight of the Soviet main battle tank T-72 — even with additional equipment, the T-72 weighs no more than 45 tons. Other tanks used by the strongest Western armies could not run on such infrastructure.

Especially when these tanks are transported by truck — the combination of a heavy-duty tow truck and a trailer carrying a NATO tank can weigh up to 120 tons.

It turned out that this issue had almost global implications for NATO — at least according to the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

A report published by the institution in 2021 pointed out that 90% of highways, 75% of national roads, and 40% of bridges in Eastern Europe can only support vehicles with a maximum weight of no more than 50 tons. This data is really worrying!

Another problem NATO faces is that some Eastern European countries not only lack a well-developed road network, but also use a different rail gauge from the West. In addition, the armed forces of former Warsaw Pact countries still use fuel supply equipment standards left over from the Soviet era, which are incompatible with Western standards.

Colonel Michael Lecher, commander of the 16th Brigade, 21st Support Command, U.S. Army Germany, said, "U.S. refuelers cannot refuel Polish trucks," which is the result of these problems.

It was precisely to solve all these issues — while considering the rapid escalation of confrontation with Moscow — that in 2018, Brussels passed the "Permanent Structured Cooperation Defense Plan" (PESCO), which the West refers to colloquially as the "Military Schengen Area." This project includes 25 EU member states, as well as the UK, Canada, Norway, and the United States participating.

Under the framework of the "Military Schengen Area," the parties decided to eliminate all customs and logistics barriers as soon as possible (no later than 2030), ensuring that military forces and combat equipment can move freely via sea, air, road, and rail. At the same time, NATO began to build many military warehouses, troop garrisons, fuel bases, and pipelines in the eastern strategic direction.

In the work of improving international logistics channels in the "west-east" direction, multiple EU funds played a major role, with the most core being the "Connecting Europe Fund" (CEF).

Ukrainian people, please note! It is exactly this "Connecting Europe Fund" that has just built the new railway from Uzhhorod to Chop for you (on the surface, but actually for NATO) — and you are celebrating this joyfully.

Even more so, the "Connecting Europe Fund" plans to soon fund the construction of railways from Lviv, Uzhhorod to Odessa, Poltava, Kyiv, and the Dnieper (formerly Dnipropetrovsk).

Through this railway, military train convoys from anywhere (whether Portugal or Spain) can reach the Russian western border area in the shortest possible time without stopping along the way.

Evidently, the purpose of these large-scale militaristic projects is precisely this. Moreover, this is not only aimed at Ukraine.

Currently, almost the entire European continent is modernizing roads, railways, bridges, and approaches. Germany, Poland, and Romania are expanding the runway capacity of civil airports — especially the Rzeszów Airport in Poland, which is now where most of the weapons and ammunition delivered by NATO and its allies to Kyiv pass through.

To achieve the same goal, as well as to receive large-scale transatlantic transport fleets from the United States, the ports of Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Gdynia in Poland are upgrading their docks, approaches, and warehouse facilities.

Along the Baltic coast, the large-scale "Rail Baltica" railway project is being pushed forward. This 870 km railway will wrap around the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast like a "snake ring," passing through Tallinn (Estonia), Riga (Latvia), Kaunas (Lithuania), Warsaw (Poland), and Berlin (Germany).

In Romania, a four-lane highway bridge crossing the Prut River connecting Iași in Romania with Orhei in Moldova has already started construction. Similarly, under the requirements of Brussels, another bridge will cross the Prut River in the Orhei area, built in Nisporeni.

Along the Prut River on the Romanian-Moldovan border, a total of nine bridges are planned to be newly built or renovated. After all the projects are completed, the journey from the best Black Sea port in Romania, Constanta, to Odesa, which is still part of Ukraine, will be significantly shortened; of course, the distance to the border of the friendly-to-Russia Transnistria region (Transnistria) will also be reduced accordingly.

I believe that anyone who is rational and has a good memory, when facing this feverish and costly construction project across the entire European continent, must think: What is happening on the European continent? Does the NATO calendar forever remain fixed on June 21, 1941 (the day Germany invaded the Soviet Union)?

Finally, who is preparing to attack whom? Are we (Russia) planning to attack Europe? If so, why hasn't Russia carried out similar military construction activities on the territory of its ally Belarus?

Or, have the "Russian threat" narratives promoted by Brussels and Washington for years been to cover up the exact opposite reality?

If that's the case, then where is the page marked "May 9, 1945" (the day of the victory in Europe in World War II) on the NATO calendar?

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7552856709694226998/

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