War in Ukraine: Russia is trying to block military supplies

Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s railway network to “paralyze” military supplies, especially Western equipment, in preparation for a new offensive, a senior Ukrainian security official said Friday.

Rail infrastructure is especially important for Ukraine, both for passenger transport and trade, and for the army, since all air traffic there has been paralyzed since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

“These are classic pre-offensive measures,” a senior Ukrainian security source who spoke to AFP about the attacks said on condition of anonymity. The goal is to “paralyze the supply and transportation of military cargo,” she added.

The railway network has been subject to regular Russian bombing over the past two years. In particular, strikes have targeted stations such as Kramatorsk in the east of the country, where dozens of people, mostly civilians trying to flee the fighting, were killed in April 2022.

However, in recent weeks there has been an increase in the number of explosions targeting railway infrastructure. On Thursday alone, strikes affected the railway infrastructure in three regions of Ukraine.

Intensification of strikes on the railway network.

In the Donetsk region (east), divided by the front line, three employees of the Ukrzaliznytsia railway company were killed as a result of an attack on a railway section. On the same day, a missile attack on the Balaklia railway station in the Kharkov region (northeast) injured ten civilians, and damaged infrastructure in Smela (Cherkasy region, center).

On April 19, as a result of a massive explosion of railway facilities in the Dnieper and its region (central-eastern), a railway employee was killed and seven others were injured. A week earlier, the Sumy (north) station was slightly damaged by a strike in Sumy (northeast).

The Russian army, for its part, said on Friday it had struck “a train with Western weapons and military equipment” in the town of Udachnoye, Donetsk region, as well as military “troops and equipment” in Balaklia.

Although she did not give dates, these allegations appear to be consistent with strikes mentioned by Ukrainian authorities the day before. Since March, Russia has increased its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, especially the electricity grid and, more recently, the railway network.