The Battle for Ukraine's Railways: Infrastructure Warfare and National Resilience
Russia has embarked on an unprecedented and systematic campaign of infrastructure warfare targeting Ukraine's railway system, employing increasingly sophisticated tactics in what officials characterize as a calculated attempt to eviscerate one of the country's most critical strategic assets and, ultimately, render the nation unsustainable as a functioning state.
The statistical evidence of this escalation is unambiguous and deeply concerning. Since the commencement of 2025, Ukrainian authorities have documented 800 discrete attacks on railway infrastructure, resulting in damage to more than 3,000 railway objects and inflicting an estimated $1 billion in economic losses, according to Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba, who holds ministerial responsibility for infrastructure. The temporal trajectory of these attacks reveals a dramatic intensification: strikes have tripled over the past three months compared to July, with September alone experiencing double the attack frequency of August. Perhaps most striking is the concentration of violence: fully half of all railway attacks recorded since the February 2022 full-scale invasion have transpired within merely the past two months, suggesting a fundamental strategic recalibration by Russian military planners.
"If you compare just the last three months, attacks have increased three times over," Kuleba stated. "What we have seen in these escalating attacks is that they are going after trains, especially trying to kill the drivers."
Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chief executive of Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine's state railway operator, articulated the strategic implications with stark clarity. "It's not just about the quantity, it's also the approach of the enemy forces," he explained. "Now, as they have very precise Shahed drones, they are targeting individual locomotives. It's a very clear battle for the railways. The enemy is trying to stop us completely. This is part of a war tactic meant to cause panic among civilians, destroy our economy, and make the country unliveable."
The centrality of Ukraine's railway network to both the war effort and civilian existence can scarcely be overstated. The 21,000-kilometre network - among Europe's most extensive - functions as the circulatory system of the Ukrainian economy and society, particularly under wartime conditions that have rendered alternative transportation modalities largely inoperative. Railways carry an extraordinary 63% of the nation's freight, including grain and iron ore exports that constitute fundamental pillars of the economy, and 37% of passenger traffic. These agricultural exports must traverse the network to reach Black Sea ports or western border crossings into Poland, making the railways indispensable to Ukraine's economic viability and its capacity to service international obligations.
With no civilian airports operational since the invasion commenced - all having been closed due to the manifest impossibility of ensuring airspace security - trains represent virtually the sole viable means for the overwhelming majority of the population to undertake domestic travel or international journeys. This dependency extends even to the highest echelons of international diplomacy: visiting world leaders, from US President Biden to European heads of state, must arrive via overnight train from Poland, a practice that Ukrainians have wryly termed "iron diplomacy." Crucially, military assistance from foreign allies - artillery shells, armoured vehicles, humanitarian supplies - frequently arrives by rail, making the network's integrity a direct determinant of Ukraine's capacity to sustain its defence.
Intelligence assessments and pattern analysis have identified a tripartite Russian strategic framework. First, forces are systematically targeting logistics capabilities in southern Ukraine to interdict the movement of agricultural and industrial goods to seaports, thereby constricting export capacity and eroding foreign currency earnings. Second, intensive strikes focus on rail infrastructure adjacent to frontline positions in regions such as Chernihiv and Sumy, seeking to disrupt the movement of military reinforcements, supplies, and the evacuation of wounded personnel. Third, Russian operations in the eastern Donbas region - Ukraine's industrial heartland comprising Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts - appear aimed at comprehensive infrastructure destruction, consistent with a strategy of territorial consolidation through rendering the region economically non-viable under Ukrainian control.
Beyond fixed infrastructure, Russian tactics have evolved to target mobile assets and personnel with disconcerting precision. Utilizing increasingly sophisticated Shahed-type drones - Iranian-designed unmanned aerial vehicles that Russia now manufactures in substantial quantities - Russian forces are engaging individual locomotives, attempting to attrit Ukraine's rolling stock inventory. Officials report that train drivers themselves have become deliberate targets, suggesting an intent to create personnel shortages through intimidation or casualties. Stations where civilians congregate, high-voltage electrical systems that power electrified rail lines, and even bomb threat hoaxes deployed to force evacuations and service disruptions all feature in the Russian tactical repertoire.
The human cost of this campaign has been substantial, with several incidents raising serious questions under international humanitarian law. At Shostka station in the Sumy region, a Shahed drone struck a passenger train in the early evening. As emergency services personnel and civilian bystanders rushed to assist the injured, a second drone deliberately struck the same location - a "double tap" attack methodology that has become increasingly prevalent in the conflict. Ukrainian officials contend that such tactics, which intentionally target medical personnel and rescue workers, constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and potential war crimes. The Shostka attack ultimately left 30 individuals injured, including three children requiring hospitalization, while one man was discovered deceased, likely from cardiac arrest induced by the traumatic circumstances.
Among the injured was Olha Zolotova, a railway conductor who was working in the second carriage when the Shahed impacted. "When the drone hit, I was covered in rubble. I was in the second car. People pulled me out," she recounted quietly from her hospital bed in Kyiv, where she had been transferred for specialized treatment at a facility dedicated to railway workers. "My eyes went dark. There was fire everywhere, everything was burning, my hair caught fire a little. I was trapped." Zolotova's injuries necessitated hip surgery and the surgical insertion of a metal plate into her leg; her recovery will be protracted.
At Lozova station in the Kharkiv region - a strategically significant junction that connects four major railway arteries to Dnipro, Sloviansk, Poltava, and Kharkiv - station head Tetyana Tkachenko provided a vivid account of the nocturnal attack that devastated her facility. "It was night and everyone was sleeping. I woke up from the huge explosion because I live very close to the station. It happened at 2:44am. There were five trains at the station," she recalled, gesturing toward the scorched facade and structurally compromised sections of the main terminal building. "It was clear they were targeting the station. They wanted to do it. And they did it." The station's strategic importance derives from its function as a critical node for passenger traffic, freight movement, and military logistics, including the evacuation of wounded soldiers from fighting on the eastern front.
Ukraine's response has been multifaceted, encompassing both technological countermeasures and procedural adaptations. Railway operators are retrofitting locomotives and carriages with electronic warfare systems designed to disrupt drone navigation and targeting mechanisms, though the efficacy of these systems against evolving drone technology remains uncertain. More unusually, railway staff - civilian employees whose job descriptions traditionally involved operational and maintenance functions - are being organized into dedicated air defence units, receiving training in threat recognition, small arms proficiency, and coordination with military air defence assets. This militarization of civilian infrastructure personnel reflects both the severity of the threat and the insufficiency of military resources to provide comprehensive protection.
Operational protocols have been substantially revised to prioritize personnel safety. Contemporary standard operating procedures mandate that upon the sounding of air raid sirens, all train movements immediately cease, locomotives are relocated to the nearest station, and passengers are evacuated to designated bomb shelters. Station personnel like Oleksandr Podvarchansky, responsible for track maintenance in the Lozova area, emphasize that "the main task is to protect people's lives. Every single air alarm, we have to stop and use a bomb shelter."
Despite these challenges, railway leadership maintains an unwavering commitment to service continuity. "We always have Plan B, C and D," Pertsovskyi stated. "The goal is never to cancel a single service or destination. If a train can't run, we combine trains and buses." This determination extends beyond mere logistics to encompass what might be termed morale maintenance. When a passenger complained on social media about spending her birthday on a train rerouted to avoid damaged infrastructure - adding six hours to her journey - Ukrzaliznytsia dispatched cake and flowers to her during the extended trip. Such gestures, while modest, reflect a conscious effort to preserve civilian morale and normalize existence under extraordinary circumstances.
Yet the systemic vulnerabilities are profound and, in some respects, inherent to railway operations. As military analyst and drone expert Serhii Beskrestnov observed, trains are inherently susceptible targets: they traverse predetermined routes at relatively modest speeds, their schedules are publicly available, and their thermal and acoustic signatures render them readily detectable. While Ukrainian repair crews have demonstrated remarkable efficiency in restoring damaged track - often completing repairs within 24 hours, testament to both their skill and the dangerous conditions under which they operate - damage to rolling stock presents an altogether more intractable challenge. Locomotives, particularly modern electric and diesel-electric units, are complex, expensive, and not rapidly replaceable given manufacturing constraints and procurement timelines.
"If the Russians keep hitting diesel and electric locomotives, the time will come very soon when the track will still be intact but we'll have nothing left to run on it," Beskrestnov warned, articulating what may represent the most existential threat to the network's viability. This observation gains particular salience when considered alongside Russia's demonstrably increasing capacity to manufacture substantial quantities of relatively inexpensive Shahed-type drones daily, combined with incremental improvements in their operational range and targeting precision.
The railway campaign is unfolding concurrently with intensified Russian strikes on Ukraine's electrical power infrastructure - attacks that recently left hundreds of thousands of civilians without electricity as winter approaches. This temporal and strategic coordination suggests a sophisticated understanding of infrastructure interdependencies: many railway lines depend on electrical power, repairs require illumination and powered equipment, and the cumulative psychological impact of simultaneous deprivation across multiple essential services may prove more corrosive to civilian morale than attacks on any single system in isolation.
The broader context is equally sobering. The intensification of infrastructure attacks appears linked to the near-stalemate conditions prevailing along much of the front line, where neither side has achieved substantial territorial gains in recent months. Faced with limited prospects for breakthrough offensive operations, Russian strategy appears to have pivoted toward attritional warfare targeting Ukraine's capacity to sustain its population and economy - essentially attempting to win through societal exhaustion what cannot be achieved through conventional military victory.
Despite the magnitude of these challenges, Ukrainian railway workers and officials project determined, if sober, resilience. Workers who distinguished themselves during attack responses - such as Oleksandr Leonenko, who helped extinguish fires at the Kyiv locomotive depot during the devastating late August attack - receive certificates of bravery and modest financial recognition. The symbolism is deliberate: these workers are publicly honored as "iron heroes," a nomenclature that parallels the "iron diplomacy" of visiting foreign leaders and consciously evokes Ukraine's historical and cultural identification with its railways as instruments of national cohesion.
As Ukraine confronts what officials across multiple ministries predict could be its most challenging winter since the invasion commenced - the fourth consecutive winter of full-scale warfare - the appeals to international partners have grown more urgent. Ukrainian officials are calling for substantially enhanced air defence systems, particularly medium and long-range capabilities that could intercept drones and missiles before they reach railway targets. The provision or withholding of such systems by Western allies may ultimately prove as consequential to Ukraine's capacity to endure as any battlefield development.
Pertsovskyi's assessment, delivered with characteristic Ukrainian sangfroid, perhaps best encapsulates both the gravity of the situation and the disposition with which Ukraine approaches it: "We're preparing mentally and practically. Ukrainians remain strong in spirit." Whether that spirit, however indomitable, will prove sufficient in the face of systematic infrastructure warfare designed explicitly to break it remains among the most consequential questions of this protracted conflict.