Russia attacked Ukrainian rail infrastructure more than 1,000 times in 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia says

Prefer on Google by Kateryna Hodunova A 'Shostka-Kyiv' passenger train car, hit by a Russian drone, lies destroyed and burned in Shostka, Sumy Oblast, on Oct. 4, 2025. (Pavlo Zarva/Kordon.Media/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images) Russia attacked Ukraine's railway infrastructure nearly 1,200 times in 2025, more than in 2024 and 2023 combined, Oleh Yakovenko, the Strategy and Transformation Department's director at Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia), said on April 23, Interfax Ukraine reported. The statement comes as Russia increasingly targets Ukraine's railway infrastructure , which transports foreign military aid and other cargo. Russian strikes have also increasingly hit passenger trains, resulting in repeated civilian casualties . Nearly 17,300 railway infrastructure facilities and pieces of rolling stock have been affected, including 7,300 damaged and 9,900 destroyed, since the start of the full-scale war, Yakovenko said at the 8th International Conference “Railways of Ukraine: Development and Investment.” Forty railway workers have been killed while on duty since 2022, Yakovenko said. In 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, Russian strikes damaged 209 locomotives, 239 passenger carriages, and 371 freight wagons, as well as 86 railway bridges and 50 stations, according to Ukrzaliznytsia . At the same time, in the past two months alone, Russia has carried out 352 strikes on railway infrastructure. Due to an increase in attacks on passenger trains, Ukrzaliznytsia has introduced additional security measures . If a Russian drone or other aerial threat is detected nearby, trains stop and all passengers are evacuated until the danger passes. As a result, trains on some routes are running several hours behind schedule, as they are unable to continue amid the risk. In several regions, particularly in the east and south of the country where intense fighting continues and FPV (first-person-view) drones are reaching even relatively densely populated towns and villages, rail service on some routes is now being replaced by buses, which are more flexible and mobile.