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Ukraine blows up main railway connection between Russia and China (www.politico.eu)

submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Ukraine’s security service blew up a railway connection linking Russia to China, in a clandestine strike carried out deep into enemy territory, with pro-Kremlin media reporting that investigators have opened a criminal case into a “terrorist attack.”

The SBU set off several explosions inside the Severomuysky tunnel of the Baikal-Amur highway in Buryatia, located some 6,000 kilometers east of Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official with direct knowledge of the operation told POLITICO.

“This is the only serious railway connection between the Russian Federation and China. And currently, this route, which Russia uses, including for military supplies, is paralyzed,” the official said.

Four explosive devices went off while a cargo train was moving inside the tunnel. “Now the (Russian) Federal Security Service is working on the spot, the railway workers are unsuccessfully trying to minimize the consequences of the SBU special operation,” the Ukrainian official added.

Ukraine’s security service has not publicly confirmed the attack. Russia has also so far not confirmed the sabotage.

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[-] totallynotaspy@kbin.social 360 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

OP missed the fun bit after the tunnel bombing:

The first cargo train exploded directly in the Severomuysky tunnel.

To continue transportation, the Russians began to use the detour route through the so-called Devil’s Bridge — a 35-meter high viaduct structure, which is part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. At that point, SBU saboteurs struck again.

“When the train was passing over this 35-meter high bridge, the explosive devices embedded in it went off,” the same official added.

[-] ours@lemmy.world 160 points 11 months ago

Damn impressive.

Sounds straight out of a WWII action/spy/war movie.

[-] SamsonSeinfelder@feddit.de 44 points 11 months ago

I think I played that mission in Commandos: Behind enemy Lines

[-] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 13 points 11 months ago

Officer, there isn't much to say. You'll approach the zone from the north west, find some way to gain access to the cannon and render it useless.

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[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

I'm sure plenty of similar things happened in every war ever.

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[-] Siegfried@lemmy.world 125 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the details

Just to add, according to Denys Davidov's report on ukraine, the first train was carrying jet fuel, which added to the whole explosion.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 100 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Jet fuel can't blow up steel beams! Wake up sheeple!

[-] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

Jet fuel can’t blow up steel beams! Wake up sheeple!

Wasn't that the reason though that the Twin Towers in NY fell, because the jet fuel melted the steel beams infrastructure?

I had read/seen that the buildings were actually designed to handle a plane crashing into them, but the architects didn't expect the metal beams to melt from the high-temperature burning jet fuel.

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago

My understanding is that the beams were sprayed with a fire retardant foam that is designed to protect it in the event of a typical building fire. But the violent impact of the jets would have stripped most of it off, and the jet fuel did indeed weaken the beams. They wouldn’t have melted outright, but softening them after already being damaged by the impact was more than it could handle.

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[-] shottymcb@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago

It didn't need to melt, raising the temperature of steel decreases it's strength.

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[-] StorminNorman@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

It's a conspiracy theory, and not a particularly intelligent one. Us normies like to make jokes like this mocking people who believe it, but they do actually believe it and will come up with some batshit insane logic to support their theories.

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[-] echodot@feddit.uk 13 points 11 months ago

Yeah it's a really dumb meme because obviously it can. The ancient Romans worked steel, so obviously it doesn't have a particularly high melting temperature.

[-] EatATaco@lemm.ee 25 points 11 months ago

Jet fuel can't melt steel beams. It doesn't burn nearly hot enough.

However, for a structure to fail you don't need to melt the beams, and getting them hot enough will also damage their structural integrity; they'll fail long before they reach the melting point.

And this is what happened on 9/11.

[-] mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 11 months ago

Even wood alone is capable of getting steel red hot under the right condition. Given my experience was with metal floor grating in a burn barrel. The steel became easily malleable with just a metal rod.

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[-] AtariDump@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

Don’t wake them!

https://xkcd.com/1013/

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[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

So they got two of three and not one of three? How is every article writer flubbing the headlines?!

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 15 points 11 months ago

The magic of AI and staff cuts.

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[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 57 points 11 months ago

It must be very hard for Russia to detect Ukrainians that work under cover in Russia, this must be a major vulnerability for Russia. Unfortunately the same is probably true the other way.

[-] mierdabird@lemmy.dbzer0.com 74 points 11 months ago

Probably not so much the other way, most Ukrainians are fluent in Russian, I doubt many Russians are fluent in Ukranian

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 27 points 11 months ago

I wonder how many Ukrainians can only speak Russian. Languages can be hard for some people.

[-] 0ops@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago

I thought I heard that zelensky himself only knew Russian until relatively recently

[-] Uncle_Bagel@midwest.social 15 points 11 months ago

They are incredibly similar languages that are more mutually intelligible, similar to Swedish/Norwegian/Danish or Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian.

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[-] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 11 months ago

Can anyone explain how different the languages are? Super different or "they kind of get eachother, just are noticably different"

[-] nolannice@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago

They have similar alphabets, grammar and a lot of cognates. If you only spoke one you'd be able to recognize most of a sentence with these things, but sometimes words are totally different. They probably sound similar to someone unfamiliar with both, but they are quite distinct.

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[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 22 points 11 months ago

Similar enough for mutual intelligibility but different enough that Russian only speakers will probably run into a shiboleth

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[-] echodot@feddit.uk 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Somebody once said to me that it's rather like the difference between English and Dutch.

If you ever hear Dutch it rather sounds like English and you've just not quite heard them correctly. If you were in another room and just heard the ebb and flow of the language you'd probably not be able to tell the difference, but in person directly you can.

And as a non-speaker of both languages they sound basically the same to me so I think it is true

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[-] Docus@lemmy.world 49 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It is not the only railway connection. And there is still the original route from before this tunnel was built. So not sure how big the impact is.

Source wikipedia

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 43 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I know virtually nothing about the Russian train system. Are all the routes able to carry the same loads? Older lines may have narrower tunnels, weaker bridges, etc. that are unable to transport the larger/heavier loads that Russia hopes to bring from China…

Edit: Track gauge is another question. I did some quick Googling and it looks like Russia used to use 1,524 mm gauge while China uses 1,435 mm. If those other lines aren’t compatible with China then it means cargo would need to be unloaded from their trains at the border and then reloaded onto Russian trains. That would slow things down tremendously.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Generally yes your lines can carry the same loads and have the same gauge. You want your internal logistics to be straightforward.

Fun fact: Russia chose a different gauge to make it more difficult to invade them.

[-] Chocrates@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

That is pretty clever

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 13 points 11 months ago

They have all sorts of interesting things. Their mortars are 1mm larger diameter. So if they capture enemy supplies, they can fire them (with a little less accuracy). If the west captures Russian mortars and tries to fire them (in western barrels) they run the risk of jamming and exploding.

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[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 32 points 11 months ago

I'm curious whether China will take this as a personal affront and feel the need to save face by escalating their participation. That would not be ideal.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 38 points 11 months ago

China really has no reason to take this as an affront. China will continue milking Russia for money/oil and let them continue weaken themselves, but they have no reason to get involved or sell them weapons.

[-] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 37 points 11 months ago

I'm no expert, please take this with a massive chunk of salt, but as far as I understand it China is trying to balance their relationship with Russia with their relationship with the US. I'd expect the reaction to a rail bombing like this to be muted and cautious.

[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 20 points 11 months ago

Good point. It has seemed recently like they're trying to make nice with the US again all of a sudden. Some of their comments after visiting San Francisco were very out of step with their rhetoric up until recently. At least as far as what I have gathered from news articles. I don't really have a great grasp on the nuances of it myself. They're a difficult government to understand sometimes.

[-] Krackalot@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 11 months ago

I think their trying to get a pro China movement in the west. I also think it's working.

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[-] skozzii@lemmy.ca 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

China will just get to charge higher delivery fees with the planes, trucks and boats that will have to ship all the goods.

Good news for China, Russia need the stuff either way, it just gonna cost them more now and take longer to arrive.

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[-] JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee 25 points 11 months ago

One of 3 that exist between the two countries, I read elsewhere. If true, this is a BIG DEAL!

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[-] yournamehere@lemm.ee 22 points 11 months ago

awesome! SBU ftw!

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[-] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

what's SBU?

[-] Sanyanov@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

Sluzhba Bezpeki Ukraini = Security Service of Ukraine, SSU Basically, Ukrainian intelligence

[-] moitoi@feddit.de 17 points 11 months ago

Ukrainian intelligence.

[-] fne8w2ah@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Dictatorships are only paper tigers inside.

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this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023

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