A series of strikes which testifies to a new aspect of Russia’s strategy on the front against Ukraine. This Friday, April 26, the Russian army claimed to have struck a “train with Western weapons and military equipment” in the Donetsk region, as well as military “troops and equipment” in Balaklia. Announcements which seem to correspond to strikes on the railway network mentioned the day before by the Ukrainian authorities.
The aim “is to paralyze deliveries, the transport of military cargo”, declared on condition of anonymity a highly placed source in the Ukrainian security system questioned by AFP about these attacks. “These are classic measures before an offensive” of scale, expected in the coming weeks, he added.
The railway infrastructure is particularly vital in Ukraine, both for passenger transport and commerce as well as for the army, because since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, all civilian air traffic has been paralyzed there. The Russian command knows this well: the Ukrainian railway network was regularly targeted by Russian bombings over the past two years. Strikes notably hit stations like that of Kramatorsk, in the east, where dozens of people, mainly civilians trying to flee the fighting, were killed in April 2022.
Strikes that multiply
But in recent weeks, an increase in bombings targeting railway infrastructure has been noted. This Thursday alone, strikes hit this infrastructure in three Ukrainian regions. In Donetsk, in the east of the country, divided by the front line, three employees of the Ukrainian railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, were killed in an attack on a railway site.
On the same day, ten civilians were injured in a missile strike on the Balaklia railway station in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and railway infrastructure was damaged in Smila in the Cherkasy region. central Ukraine.
The increase in these strikes, however, is not just from this week. A massive bombing against railway sites in Dnipro and its region killed an Ukrzaliznytsia employee and injured seven others on April 19. A week earlier, the Sumy train station in northern Ukraine was hit by a strike.
“A very primitive way of doing things”
These attacks on the railway network are fully part of Russian tactics of strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. Attacks on the energy network have increased since the start of the year, with cities like Kharkiv plunged into darkness for long hours on several occasions.
The move to attacks on the railway network, however, is not a coincidence. It comes right at the time when the United States, after months of paralysis due to internal political rivalries, resumed its military aid to Ukraine. However, Western weapons given to Ukraine, in particular ammunition for artillery and air defense, are delivered by rail in the greatest secrecy from neighboring countries, in particular Poland.
The head of Ukrzaliznytsia’s passenger transport, Oleksandr Pertsovsky, told AFP on Thursday that he had noted “an increase in attacks on railway infrastructure” “We note that the strikes target railway logistics, and mainly affect civilian sites” , he said. “They carry out indiscriminate strikes on train stations, it’s a very primitive way of doing things.”
In any case, the objective seems clear: to slow down as much as possible the delivery of Western support now bailed out for Ukraine. Because, weakened by an unsuccessful counter-offensive in the summer of 2023 and the months-long paralysis of American military aid, the Ukrainian forces, lacking men and ammunition, are under pressure on a large part of the front, particularly in the East. The situation is expected to worsen around mid-May and early June, which will be a “difficult period”, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov warned on Monday. An analysis shared by Western officials who predict that the next three months will be “very difficult” for kyiv’s forces. These attacks against Ukrainian rail suggest that Moscow seems to want to take advantage of this period.