Targeting Ukraine's Railway Infrastructure

"[The attacks ​are] very cruel [and] deliberate when everyone expects de-escalation steps."

"[Ukraine had intelligence] about ⁠preparations by the Russians of new ballistic missile strikes. We need the means ‌to take out all this Russian evil. We are expecting relevant decisions."

"A horrific Russian attack on Dnipro train station. The Russians used a drone to attack a platform where a regular commuter train and a regular passenger train were standing."

"How many such terrorist attacks has Russia carried out on our people after lifting sanctions on some Russian oligarchs and energy companies instead of de-escalating."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

 

"It was hell. The train stopped at night somewhere in central Ukraine. I don’t even know the name of the town. Half asleep, I just heard the conductor say ‘evacuation’. We took only our personal belongings and valuables with us. It was raining outside. Thank you to the conductors for handing out blankets."

"That’s how we held out for two hours. While kamikaze drones were buzzing overhead, we crawled under a goods wagon. The last carriage in the train was full of children. They were being taken back from hospital. They were crying in their sleep. I thought I’d ended up in some sort of horror film. But no, this is our life."

Ukrainian journalist Tetiana Zaiets 

Boryspil, in the Kyiv region. Trains were evacuated and travellers stranded during Russia’s days-long air assault on Kyiv

 

"The enemy has chosen our passenger services as a target", commented Oleg Golovashchenko, head, state operator passenger company, Ukrainian Railways. Drone attacks have forced Ukraine to institute a safety process, now routine, of evacuating trains when danger of a drone attack seems imminent. Passenger trains are typically paused for as long as it takes for the danger to pass. Passengers are escorted off the trains to ensure they will not become trapped in any that are struck by explosives.

 

These massive and increasingly frequent attacks on trains, train stations and railway infrastructure have made any kind of journey potentially dangerous undertakings. Mass transit use in Ukraine is an absolute necessity for any number of reasons, from short trips to and from a place of employment, to longer business trips between cities, and trips for family reunification, brief or prolonged. There are no longer trips taken casually with the impulse for a trouble-free, pleasant outing.  

 

Emergency employees work at a railway station hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Reuters)

 

Ukraine's skies have for years been closed to passenger flights; the only planes are those of the Ukrainian military or those of the Russian military's 'special military operation' in the beleaguered country's airspace. Train travel is the only option in a country where suddenly missiles and drones erupt on missions of destruction of civilian infrastructure, not excluding schools, hospitals, shopping centers, apartment blocks. There are no international rules of warfare protecting civilian enclaves that Moscow respects.

 

Reliance on trains in Ukraine has become a mainstay of travel, from short trips to lengthy travel plans. Through 2026 alone, Russian aerial attacks targeting rail lines have resulted in damage to 4,856 railway facilities, among which are 380 locomotives out of commission and 146 carriages destroyed, according to Ukrainian Railways. At least 50 railway personnel have lost their lives. Those attacks have made it compulsory that when attacks appear imminent, trains must pause and passengers evacuated.

 

Daily, there are one hundred to two hundred evacuations, resulting in widespread delays lasting hour after hour across the country. Some 30 kilometres from the Russian border, trains chugging to and from the north-eastern terminus stop frequently in response to attack threats on the Kharkiv-Kyiv route, Ukraine's largest, most populous cities. 

 

A Ukrainian railway carriage that was attacked by a Russian drone on Jan. 27, 2026, is displayed at the Kyiv central train station on Feb. 23, 2026. | Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images

 

Departing Kharkiv overnight, passengers making sleep preparations are given warning their rest could be rudely interrupted through the necessity of an emergency evacuation. "We brought them aboard the train, we must get them to their destination alive", explains 50-year-old train attendant Mykola Kryvenko. Mere  hours into the journey the night-time silence in the carriage is disturbed when the sound of hurried footsteps break out and there are compartment door knocks. "Evacuation, evacuation", the rudely awakened passengers hear the train attendant's call. The sounds of nearby Russian drones clear drowsy heads.

 

The platform swiftly fills with people intently aware of sounds in the sky. Attendants urge passengers to place some distance between themselves and the emptied carriages, as the sounds of approaching drones increase in volume. Suddenly the sky is lit with explosions in the near distance, and passengers pick up a running pace to separate from the train while others quietly edge further and then further again from direct proximity to the stilled train. 

 

Refugees arriving in Lviv on evacuation trains from Kharkiv and Kryvy Rih make their way through the train station. Photograph: Jelle Krings

 

 Once the sounds of explosions fade and danger seems to have passed, the passengers soon re-embark when the crew announces an all-clear, and the journey continues. But Ukraine's winter is approaching and uppermost in mind is the fear that this winter will be harsh and train travel will become even more fraught with danger. Should potential disruptions take place to electricity, water and heating resulting from Russian attacks on energy infrastructure intensify, the near future is one of anxious apprehension.

Frequent train pauses and the evacuations that accompany them will become all the more difficult with the onset of freezing temperatures, snowfall and deadly interruptions. Plans are underway at Ukrainian Railways to allow passengers to remain on board paused trains at preventative stops. Golovashcenko, head of the passenger company, adds that blankets and heating pads will be on hand with the new preparations to ensure that people keep warm in harsh winter conditions  

 

Pixabay.com via Defence24

 

 

Circumventing Established World Conventions

"Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe."

"Fire has already broke [sic] out ... Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!"

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Foreign Minister

 

"The expectation of the president [Emmanuel Macron] is that the worst is to come, given what President Putin told him."

"There was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us. He showed great determination to continue the operation."

Senior French presidential aide 

Two women hold posters during a demonstration outside the embassy of France in Lisbon, in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, Friday, March 4, 2022. Demonstrations were organized outside a number of embassies Friday. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

 

"We've continued and consistently shared a significant amount of detailed, timely intelligence on Russia's plans and activities with the Ukrainian government to help Ukrainians defend themselves."

"This includes information that should help them inform and develop their military response to Russia's invasion. that's what's happening, or has been happening."

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki

The fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station appeared to have been in a training building outside the perimeter of the plant following an attack by Russian troops, according to the Ukraine state emergency service. Radiation security had been assured at the site, according to the plant's director. Background levels of radiation had not undergone any change. One of the station blocks had been switched to off. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency stated it was "aware of reports of shelling" at the power plant. The situation led them to remain in contact with Ukrainian authorities. There are six Soviet-era-designed 950-megawatt reactors dating 1984 to 1995, with a 5.7 gigawatt capacity, sufficient to power over four million  homes. The plant's output is responsible for roughly 20 percent of the electricity generated in Ukraine.

 

A view shows a damaged administrative building of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Enerhodar, the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine in this handout picture released March 4, 2022 (National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom/Reuters)

 

Fierce fighting between Russian invaders and Ukraine defenders had been going on in the area, about 550 km southeast of Kyiv, resulting in casualties. The defunct Chernobyl plant had already been taken by Russia. Russian troops have obviously been given orders by the Kremlin to take possession of the two plants in a strategy to deprive Ukrainians of any semblance of normal life. 

President Vladimir Putin's strategy of marching his troops into Ukraine with the intention of swiftly removing its current government to replace it with one taking orders from Moscow hasn't worked out quite as he imagined it would, at this juncture. He evidently had given no thought to the indomitable resolve of Ukrainians at every level of society to protect their country and themselves from his malign intentions.

 

Surveillance camera footage shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after shelling in Enerhodar, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine on Friday. (Zaporizhzhya NPP via Reuters)

 

The world at large is shocked and angry at the perfidy, speed and violence at which the invasion has unrolled. For the most part, the outside world is sympathetic to Ukraine's plight and views the Russian invasion for what it is a criminal act of war that threatens dire destabilization in all of Europe. Further afield, the echoes of this war will impact globally, from basic agricultural crop availability to energy shortages needed to run everything from municipal services to factories, farms and service industries.

Ukraine's plight, unlike in an era before the rise of the internet and social media, is on full view with uploaded media; photographs, videos and personal narratives detailing impressions of the invasion and the encirclement, bombardment and sieges of cities across the vast country. Infuriated by the numbers and depth of the sanctions being imposed against Russia, and the resolution carried in the UN by the majority of the General Assembly, he wanted to ensure that Mr.Macron understood there was no intention on Putin's part to stand down on his Ukraine position.

President Macron's response was quoted as informing President Putin that he was committing a "major mistake" in Ukraine; that "You are lying to yourself. It will cost your country dearly, your country will end up isolated, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time." According to Ukrainian officials, the price for the invasion among Russian troops is already steep, with 9,000 Russian soldiers dead so far.

European leaders are set to meet in Versailles on March 10 for a discussion on the potential of pooling military resources in line with plans for the assembly of an integrated European Union military. This, following the Russian president's address to his internal security council in the wake of increased criticism by influential Russian groups, upset over sanctions and their increasing isolation from global activities. 

The morale of Russian servicemen called to action in Ukraine under false pretenses of 'practise drills' before they were ordered to invade, leaving many confused and unwilling to carry out orders, as well as videos surfacing of Russian soldiers taken as prisoners of war by the Ukraine military, showing the Russians tearfully calling on Russians to rise up against their president impelled Putin to promise 'compensation' packages for injured personnel and the families of those killed in action.

None of which will mollify the tens of thousands of citizens within Russia who protest at risk of arrest and charges leading to prison terms of up to 15 years. What's more, legislation is being brought forward to enable the government to conscript Russian war protesters into the military and send them to active duty on the front lines in Ukraine. "I will never give up on my conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are one people", he reiterates, willing to have both ethnicities comprising the 'one people' die for his conviction.

Ukrainians are still fleeing the country by the thousands, seeking safety as Russian forces continue their assault on key cities, including Kharkiv in the north and communities around the capital Kyiv. Here, a woman reacts as she stands in front of a burning house after it was shelled in Irpin, outside Kyiv, on Friday. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Not only is he considering the imposition of announcing martial law at an extraordinary session of the Russian parliament, there are concerns he is planning a "false flag" rocket attack in justification of the clampdown on public dissent. A convoy of Russian ships moved to the Black Sea coast, close enough to be viewed from shore in a signal that an amphibious invasion of Odessa may be in the offing.

The lengthss to which Putin will go to force his will on Ukraine have no limit; reports are circulating of his planning to carry out public executions to break Ukraine's morale even as the wholesale killing of civilians continue in besieged cities, where apartment blocks, schools, government buildings and hospitals are all seen as 'legitimate' war-time targets, defying the Genera Convention and protocols.

The mayor of Kherson, the fist city in Ukraine to fall to Russian troops -- organized mass graves to be prepared to enable the collection and burial of bodies from the streets of those blown to bits by Russian bombardment. And nor have Russians been spared mass casualties mounting, along with the death of Russian Major General Andrey Sukhovetskiy, deputy commander of the 41st Army, based on Novosibirsk. 

 

Displaced people rest at a makeshift shelter in Mlyny, near the Korczowa border crossing, in Poland, Thursday, March 3, 2022. More than 1 million people have fled Ukraine following Russia's invasion — the swiftest refugee exodus in this century, according to the United Nations. (Markus Schreiber/AP)

 

"If you look at Grozny during the Second Chechen War, and if you look at Aleppo during the Syrian war, Russia is experienced in this."

"It is, on the one hand, unimaginable that Russia would do this to Kyiv because Kyiv is part of Russian mythology, this is where Russians situate their own origins. But if you see what's happening in Kharkiv right now, it is looking more and more like the Russian military is fighting a war of attrition against defenders that have dug in to draw a very painful concession from Ukrainians."

"For [those who lived through the 90s], the Russia they live in today is the making of Putin. Even though more correctly speaking, it is the making of a serendipitous increase in the prices of crude oil and gas that allowed Putin to fund a state which is still extremely volatile."

"It is starting to get difficult to justify not implementing a no-fly zone, and the no-fly zone could—and this is the fear and it's probably not misplaced—lead to an armed conflict between Russia and NATO allies with European countries."

"And that is scary to imagine because right now Russia is only using a fraction of its air force over Ukrainian airspace… But if there's an all-out war between the air forces allied with NATO and the Russian Air Force, that is as big as it gets. And that is inconceivable. But at this point, nobody would rule it out."

Florian Gassner, senior instructor, German and Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia