Фото: Минобороны России
Belarusian Railway faced a shortage of serviceable universal flatcars at the end of August, the Belarusian Railway Community reported, citing sources involved in organizing transportation.
According to the sources, some flatcars belonging to Belarusian Railway and its subsidiary BELINTERTRANS — Transport and Logistics Center are already being used to fulfill military transport requests or have been reserved for upcoming shipments. As a result, other shippers have to wait for flatcars to be provided or receive them in smaller numbers.
The exact number of flatcars involved, loading stations and routes of the military trains are not yet known. The dispatch of Belarusian units to the Ashuluk training ground in Russia accounts for only a small part of the demand for flatcars, the report said. From August 25 to September 10, the Belarusian Armed Forces are conducting an operational-tactical exercise involving the Air Force and Air Defense Forces, with its second stage scheduled to take place at the training ground.
Universal flatcars are used to transport tanks, armored personnel carriers, combat vehicles, artillery systems and military vehicles. Transporting a single unit may require several dozen such railcars.
A similar situation arose during the West-2021 military exercises. At the time, Belarusian Railway was unable to provide additional flatcars to Gomselmash, BelAZ and KATEK due to the fulfillment of a government order related to “national security.”
At the same time, the authors of the report stress that there are currently no signs of a mass deployment of Russian troops comparable to January-February 2022. So far, only a shortage of flatcars has been recorded.