Russia has changed tactics in its attacks on Ukrainian soil. It has seen a threefold increase in the number of attacks on its rail system since July. This shows that Moscow seeks to destroy.
Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy prime minister in charge of infrastructure, said attacks on the network since early 2025 have caused a total of $1 billion in damage. “If we compare just the last three months, the attacks have tripled,” Kuleba said.
He then pointed out: “Since the beginning of the year there have been 800 attacks on railway infrastructure and more than 3,000 railway objects have been destroyed. What we have noticed in these escalating attacks is that they are targeting the trains, mainly trying to kill the drivers.”
Why is Putin hitting the rail network?
As , in a country as large as Ukraine, railways are vital. The rail network carries more than 63% of the country’s freight – including grain shipments – and 37% of passenger traffic, according to the state statistics agency. Military aid from foreign countries often arrives by train.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, no civilian airports are operational, so most people travel to and from the country – including visiting leaders from around the world – by train.
“It’s not just the crowd [των επιθέσεων]but also the approach of enemy forces,” said Oleksandr Perchovsky, head of Ukraine’s state railways. He then added: “Now that they have a very accurate Shahed drone, they are targeting individual trains.”
Efforts have been put in place to better protect the network, including equipping trains with electronic systems to counter drone attacks and creating special air defense teams from railway staff.
Earlier this year, the station’s main building in Lozova, Kharkiv region, was severely damaged by a drone attack. Other attacks damaged railway lines. Despite the attacks, passengers are still lining up to buy tickets and board trains to destinations across the country.
“It was night and everyone was sleeping,” Tetiana Tkachenko, the station’s manager, said of a recent attack. Tkachenko explained why the station was the target. “Lozova is at an important junction,” he said. “You can go in four directions, to Dnipro, Sloviansk, Poltava and Kharkiv.”
The lines are used to transport passengers, goods and military support, including transporting wounded soldiers from the fighting on the Eastern Front.
Russia’s three goals
Oleksandr Podvarchansky, who is in charge of railways in the Lozova region, described what happened when the air raid sirens sounded. “The main task is to protect people’s lives,” he said.
“Every time the air raid alert sounds, we have to stop and take shelter. If there is a train on the tracks, we move it to the nearest station so people can evacuate,” he said.
Kuleba said Russia had three goals:
- disrupt Ukraine’s supply chain in the south to prevent goods from being transported to ports
- to disrupt rail traffic near the front lines in areas such as Chernivtsi and Sumy
- to “destroy everything” in Donbass, Ukraine’s industrial heartland that includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The network has also been the target of false bomb threats, including a recent international one. Few officials doubt that Russia is responsible.
Easy target for drones
While rail lines can be repaired quickly – often within a day, according to Podvarchanski – damage to rolling stock is a more worrisome issue.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Sergei Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian military officer and drone expert, said trains are particularly vulnerable to drones because they are relatively slow and follow predictable routes.
As the range of Russian drones increases and the technology becomes more and more sophisticated, more and more rail networks are coming into their range. “If the Russians keep hitting diesel engines and electric engines, very soon the time will come when the railway lines will remain intact, but we will have nothing to run on them,” said Beskrestnov.
