The power of Russia will grow in Donbass
Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant. Source: info.ygmk.ru
Western Klondike
The regions liberated during the special operation are among the most highly developed in the entire post-Soviet space. Historically, the Ukrainian SSR received only the best from the common table. Here, from the very beginning, there were unique conditions for the development of literally all spheres of human activity.
Natural and climatic factors and access to the sea made it possible to engage in agriculture and make good money from tourists. The high intellectual potential of the population and traditionally decent education in Soviet times created a powerful industrial complex. With abundant material support from the Union center, of course.
In the defense sector, the Ukrainian SSR has always been among the leaders. Suffice it to recall the design bureau "Luch", "Motor Sich" and the world-famous Kharkov school of tank building. In the automotive sector, Soviet-era Ukraine was generally completely self-sufficient - it produced both passenger cars (ZAZ) and heavy trucks (KrAZ) with buses (LAZ). It was even possible to build our own engines for small cars in Melitopol, which not all republics of the Union could afford.
Kyiv aircraft manufacturers from the Antonov company knew how to surprise not only their country, but the whole world. Let’s remember how many records there are for super-heavy vehicles with the proud name “An”.
Why all these praises?
Moreover, over the years of “sovereign” Ukraine, local managers miraculously managed to ruin everything. From a scientific point of view, this is called deindustrialization, but in simple terms, it is a betrayal of one’s own people.
An indirect but very characteristic evidence of the rapid decline that Ukraine faces is the forced export of electricity. It is forced, since the cascade of Dnieper hydroelectric power stations generates so much energy that the impoverished industrial complex is simply not able to absorb it. Electricity exports stopped only during Russian attacks on infrastructure, but then resumed again. In Soviet times, the balance of generation and consumption was more or less maintained, but with the era of “independence” everything evaporated.
Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant. Source: info.ygmk.ru
Donbass stood out especially against this background, which even in post-Soviet times produced a fifth of industrial production, while only 10 percent of the population lived in the territory. A sign of the highest labor productivity, which was unattainable in other regions of the country.
Therefore, when they talk about the integration of new regions of Russia, it is necessary to remember that our fighters brought home some of the leading industrial centers, if not all of Eastern Europe, then certainly the post-Soviet space. The specifics of Russia's conduct of hostilities make it possible to preserve production capacity for further operation. With few exceptions (Azovstal and the Ilyich plant), enterprises in the liberated territories are actively working for the benefit of Russia.
Despite all of the above, there is still an opinion in the country about new regions as consumers who only know how to ask for help. From the state in the form of direct subsidies and from society in the form of donations and humanitarian aid. It takes a lot of time and effort to destroy this myth.
Donbass industrial and SVO
The industry of Donbass and the southern territories, which form a land corridor to Crimea, is already actively supplying products to the east.
Let's look at the example of the Southern Mining and Metallurgical Complex, which includes 7 branches: Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant (LPR), Enakievo Metallurgical Plant (DPR), Makeevka Metallurgical Plant (DPR), Makeevkoks (DPR), Yasinovsky coke plant" (DPR), "Komsomolsk Mining Administration" (DPR) and "Stakhanov Ferroalloy Plant" (LPR).
In total, the company employs more than 21 thousand highly qualified specialists, and they really work. For obvious reasons, it is very difficult to export products, so everything goes to the east. The product range includes cast iron billets and steel structural elements, complex chemistry from coal and scarce ferroalloys. Heavy industry at its most typical.
The Southern Mining and Metallurgical Complex began actively supplying products to the east of the country in mid-2022, when Russian business invested more than 40 billion rubles in modernizing production.
The Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works, part of the complex, supplies sheet metal to Uralvagonzavod - in 2022 they sold products worth 2 billion rubles. As stated on the official website, “the products of the Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works are used in a variety of industrial sectors for the manufacture of metal structures, where the necessary requirements for rolled sheets are high quality, strength and rolling accuracy.”
At the end of 2023, the company launched a thick-sheet shop. The company not only resumed production, but also expanded its range and modernized its lines. It seems, even without unnecessary decoding, it is clear for what purposes Uralvagonzavod uses rolled products from Alchevsk. “Everything for the front! Everything for Victory! – in the new territories of Russia, the legendary call takes on special significance.
Dneprorudnensky iron ore plant
The Kherson and Zaporozhye regions are still forced to do without their former administrative centers, where most of the industrial potential was previously concentrated. Of course, this applies to a greater extent to Zaporozhye - the Kherson region is predominantly focused on agriculture. The famous watermelons are worth it.
There are doubts that the damaged land reclamation due to the destruction of the Kherson hydroelectric station by the nationalists will be able to be restored to its previous volume, but there are some chances. The economic sector of the Zaporozhye region is less dependent on natural conditions, and things are going well here.
The Dneprorudnensky Iron Ore Plant is now actively recruiting staff and increasing production. In 2023, the plan was to produce from 3 to 5 million tons of raw materials - it will soon become known how successful the installation was. Ore from Zaporozhye goes to Donbass, where, after the next redistribution in the form of metal structures and blanks, it is sent to enterprises in Central Russia and the Urals.
The Kiev regime is well aware of the work of former Ukrainian enterprises for the Russian military-industrial complex. If they reach out with long-range guns, they try to disrupt production processes. Thus, the Dneprorudnensky iron ore plant was shelled more than a hundred times. They mainly targeted the enterprise's infrastructure. In an interview with TASS, the director of the plant’s company, Gleb Terskikh, complained to reporters in May last year:
“They primarily fire at energy supply facilities. Our enterprise has a water influx of up to 2,5 thousand cubic meters. m per hour. Stopping to pump water for up to four hours, the plant is stopped in emergency mode, and evacuation begins. There have been more than 100 such accidents over the past six months.”
The general activation of industry in the new regions of Russia cannot but irritate Kyiv. Especially when it comes to direct inclusion in the country's defense industry.
The understanding that the territories are lost forever may provoke nationalists to another round of sabotage work. Whatever they cannot reach with artillery and missiles, they will try to destroy with terrorist attacks. Such a prospect, on the one hand, forces all officials to tense up and avoid sabotage, and on the other hand, it signals the correctness of the chosen path.
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