Since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Ukraine's railway network has served as the backbone for civilian evacuations, military movements, weapons transport, export goods, and the arrival of world leaders to Kyiv.
The pattern of Russian attacks on rail infrastructure has shifted dramatically. Early in the war, strikes primarily came from artillery near combat zones. When Russia's 2022 offensive failed and troops withdrew from areas around Kyiv and other oblasts, attacks on railways sharply decreased through most of 2023 and 2024, with Russian forces focusing instead on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
That changed in spring 2025. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty counted over 100 incidents in the eight months starting from May—more than double the total number of attacks on rail infrastructure in 2023 and 2024 combined.
"Russia's desire is obvious: to paralyze Ukrainian logistics, because a significant share of cargo, including military cargo, uses railway connections," former Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The new campaign relies heavily on Shahed-type drones rather than artillery and ballistic missiles. On 18 July, long-range drones struck a train in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing the engineer and wounding his assistant. On 4 Octobe, Russian drone strikes on passenger trains in Shostka, Sumy Oblast, killed one person and wounded dozens.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack as "terrorism," while Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called this campaign "one of Russia's most brutal tactics."
Moscow consistently claims it does not strike civilian populations or civilian infrastructure, despite numerous evidence to the contrary.
Rail infrastructure in eastern Ukraine, now the main focus of Russian attacks, has suffered the most damage. But key stations in western and central Ukraine have also been targeted, causing delays across the entire network.
"When a train falls off its schedule due to damage, accordingly, this has a domino effect on other train routes," said Oleksandr Kava, former Deputy Minister of Infrastructure.
In August, Russian drones struck the station in Koziatyn, destroying rolling stock and forcing trains to reroute. In November, Ukrainian Railways was forced to suspend service to Sloviansk in Donetsk region and to Kramatorsk—the station where dozens died early in the full-scale war. Russian forces are now just 20 kilometers from the city.
Sumy Oblast, with its long border with Russia, faces attacks even from small, short-range drones and FPVs. On 18 October, such strikes damaged a railway station and wounded civilians.
On 6 December, Russia attacked the key railway station in Fastiv in Kyiv Oblast with Shaheds. The attack completely destroyed the railway station and damaged the suburban electric train depot. Ukrainian officials called it the largest attack on rail infrastructure in the capital and its surroundings.
Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, head of Ukrainian Railways, said strikes on stations in cities like Shostka have no military purpose.
"They are doing everything to make frontline and border areas uninhabitable, so that people are afraid to go there, afraid to get on trains, afraid to gather at markets, and students are afraid to return home."
Six weeks after the full-scale invasion began, Russia struck the railway station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, with two Tochka-U ballistic missiles. Thousands of civilians were waiting there for evacuation. Sixty-one people died, including seven children.
Earlier strikes on railway stations had targeted Ukrainian troops or military equipment concentrated there. Russia's Defense Ministry stated that on 6 May 2022, it struck a depot of Western weapons at the station in Bohodukhiv in Kharkiv Oblast.
Despite the Russian strikes, Ukrainian Railways "shows an amazing ability to survive," said Volodymyr Omelyan, the former infrastructure minister. "Thanks to this, the Ukrainian economy still functions."
The strike data was collected from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) database, then filtered to attacks where Ukrainian railway stations, trains, and other related infrastructure were damaged or targeted. Ukrainian officials cite higher figures for the number of strikes on rail infrastructure than reflected in this data, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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