Russia can cut off Mariupol, Ukraine’s fifth busiest port, by rail as easily as by sea

Russia can cut off Mariupol, Ukraine’s fifth busiest port, by rail as easily as by sea, Andriy Klymenko, chief editor of blackseanews.net news, warns in an interview with apostrophe.ua. The rail line from Mariupol travels 75 km northeast to Volnovakha, “which is almost the frontlines,” he says. Lumping Ukraine’s two Azov ports together, he says: “Losing the production of Mariupol and Berdyansk [would be] a huge loss in GDP. We send 30%-40% of our metal exports from there. This is a loss of 1-2% of the nation’s GDP. We need to consider this very seriously.” The Berdyansk rail line, departing 80 km to the west of Mariupol, travels northwest to Zaporizhia.