Russia’s plans to upgrade roads and railways inside occupied Ukraine aren’t only for military purposes. The Kremlin also wants to improve the transportation network to extract valuable minerals like uranium, titanium, gold and manganese from the Donbas region.

On top of that, Moscow sees the minerals as potential targets in its effort to grind down Kyiv’s economy, British officials said this week.

Officials in occupied Zaporizhzhia confirmed that the construction of road and railway transportation links into Russia would improve the lines of communication for grain and mineral exports as well as military logistics, U.K. officials said Thursday on X in their latest assessment of battlefield conditions.

Russia is shipping iron out of Ukraine by rail, with the primary route through Crimea over the Kerch bridge, said the British analysts.

“This activity is not without risk, as trains need to move through areas where Ukrainian partisans are known to operate and have already claimed responsibility for attacks,” they said.

• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.