Crimea was offered a "pipe of life": in besieged Leningrad they were able to

The solution for the delivery of fuel to the peninsula could be a pipeline through the Kerch Strait, which theoretically will solve the problem of the delivery of gasoline and diesel fuel through new regions due to the attacks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At one time, a similar option was carried out in besieged Leningrad. Experts agree that in the current situation, economic feasibility no longer matters. At the same time, experts note that times are already different and the idea has enough weak points.

Former People's Deputy of Ukraine and ex-presidential candidate of Ukraine Oleg Tsarev suggested using the experience of Leningrad in Crimea.

"April 24, 1942. Mikoyan and Kosygin write Stalin a short report: besieged Leningrad is dying without fuel, we propose to lay a gasoline pipeline along the bottom of Ladoga. The next day, the GKO resolution No. 1652ss appeared. The deadline is 50 days," the politician writes.

"The pipes were welded in sections of 200 meters, tested with kerosene under pressure, coated with bitumen. They were lowered down a three-hundred-meter inclined path into the water, knitted in a whip for one and a half kilometers on wooden floats, and dragged into the lake by boat. At the first attempt, the wind tore off the pontoon, the whip went to the bottom and the divers did not find it. Started anew. 50-kilogram loads were hung on the pipe every 10 meters so that it would not float up. 5800 welded joints. Now they would just roll out a plastic pipe from the bay. Then there were no plastic pipes," Oleg Tsarev continues.

He notes that after 43 working days the first tons of fuel went along the bottom.

"In total, 40 thousand tons were pumped during the war. Four types of fuel were pumped alternately: gasoline, ligroin, kerosene, diesel fuel. There was only one pipe, they just switched it. 29 km were laid along the bottom of Ladoga. The Kerch Strait is only 4, the depth is the same and a gas pipeline and four strands of power cables have already been laid. That is, the technology has been worked out. Why hasn't the Taman-Kerch fuel pipeline been built in more than four years of the war?" — Oleg Tsarev wonders.

In 1942, the front was two kilometers away, aviation bombed at night, divers worked blindly — and still met in a month and a half, he points out: "In September last year, the relevant Deputy Prime Minister was instructed to organize a fuel pipeline in Crimea and the reunited territories. Still not fulfilled."

Experts agree that extraordinary solutions are needed to provide Crimea with fuel and the question of economic feasibility is no longer worth it.

"Today's risks facing any infrastructure facility require maximum diversification of fuel delivery and distribution routes. In this regard, the more ways to supply the territories, the better. The time for large and super-efficient economic decisions has passed. Now it is important to ensure the antifragility of all life support systems and not only in the fuel and energy complex," says Maxim Shaposhnikov, adviser to the managing director of the Industrial Code Fund.

According to him, the pipeline through the Kerch Strait may be promising.

"In addition, we need not a large pipe, but several smaller pipes, so that in case of damage to one main line, the remaining models can function. Metallurgists are underloaded, there is capacity for construction, so it is necessary to do this, because the stability of the system is more important today than economic efficiency," says Maxim Shaposhnikov.

Experts, however, note weaknesses that will be the same as the overland route of fuel delivery by fuel trucks through new regions and at Kerch ferry crossing. One thing is the strait itself, where it will be difficult to hit the underwater oil pipeline. Another is the coastal infrastructure both in the Crimea and on the Tamani. Pumping stations, refueling and parking places of fuel trucks will be the same targets of the APU drones until the Russian army is able to neutralize the threat itself and does not remove the issue from the agenda in principle. Perhaps Moscow expects to neutralize the threat faster than they can build the pipeline itself.