Russia is hitting Ukraine’s rail network to paralyze military transports, Ukrainian officials accuse / Rail infrastructure is vital to Ukraine, both for the military and for civilian transport of people and goods

Russia is bombing Ukraine’s railway network to “paralyze” military supplies, including Western military aid, as Moscow prepares a new offensive, a Ukrainian security official said on Friday, after a series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian railways, reports AFP, reports Agerpres .

Rail infrastructure is vital for Ukraine, both for the military and civilian transport of people and goods, while air transport has been completely halted since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

“We have classic pre-offensive measures here,” a Ukrainian security official, who asked to remain anonymous, said of the new Russian attacks on the Ukrainian rail network. The objective of the new Russian attack strategy “is to paralyze deliveries, the transport of military cargo”, explains the quoted source.

Meanwhile, the Russian military claimed to have hit a train carrying Western weapons supplied to Kiev in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. “A train with Western weapons and military equipment was hit near the town of Udacine,” as well as military “troops and equipment” in Balaklia (a city in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv), the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday, without further details , but this announcement seems to correspond to attacks that Ukrainian officials talked about on Thursday.

Russia has attacked the Ukrainian rail network before during the more than two years of war, but such attacks have intensified in recent weeks. Only on Thursday, such bombings took place in three Ukrainian regions, respectively in Donetsk, in the northeastern province of Kharkiv and in the central one of Cherkassy.

Thus, in Donetsk province, three employees of the Ukrainian railways Ukrzaliznitsia were killed in the attack on a railway infrastructure. On the same day, ten civilians were injured after a rocket hit a train station in the town of Balaklia. Other railway infrastructure was also damaged in the city of Smila, located in the central part of Ukraine.

On April 19, a massive bombing of the railway network in the city of Dnipro and other locations in the central-eastern region of the same name killed an employee of the Ukrzalizniţia company and injured seven others. In the previous week, the railway station in the city of Sumy, in the north-east of Ukraine, was also hit. Also this month, the company Ukrzaliznitsia suspended its shipments to the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, without specifying the reason, but Ukrainian media reported on Russian attacks that allegedly damaged railway tracks in the port’s terminals.

Ukrainian officials rarely give detailed statements about Russian attacks on sensitive military targets, but Ukrainian intelligence sources have also confirmed to Reuters that Russia is conducting airstrikes on the rail network in Ukraine to disrupt Ukrainian military logistics.

Russian troops have accelerated their advance in the northwest direction from the occupied city of Avdiivka in Donetsk province over the past week, occupying several small towns in this region, where they continue to press Ukrainian troops, according to the British military intelligence service and the Telegram channel. DeepState”, close to the Ukrainian army, quoted by the EFE agency.

These advances by the Russian military come as Ukraine waits to receive the first package of US military aid funded by more than $60 billion in new funds approved this week by the US Congress after half a year of gridlock. This first package, worth about $1 billion, includes ammunition for artillery and anti-aircraft systems, plus armor and other equipment, and is considered vital for Ukrainian troops facing a shortage of men and ammunition to stop the Russian army’s advance.