Russia said today that it struck rail infrastructure in three Ukrainian regions on Thursday and hit a Western arms supply train in the village of Udachen in a concerted strike. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the attacks on the railway took place in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, TASS reported. Ukrainians announced today that Russian attacks killed three Ukrainian railwaymen in the village of Udachen, but did not mention the train. Russia is preparing for a new offensive and attacks on Ukraine’s railway network are trying to paralyze military supplies, including Western aid, an unnamed senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Friday.
“Operational-tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery struck a train with Western weapons and military equipment in the area of the settlement of Udachen…” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement today, according to which its troops also attacked Ukrainian “soldiers and equipment” in Balaklia No further details were given, as the Russian authorities did not comment on the specific attack on the train station in the city of Balakliya in the Kharkiv region and infrastructure was damaged by the attack in the city of Smila in the Cherkasy region in the central part of the country.
“These are classic pre-offensive measures,” said a high-ranking source in the Ukrainian security forces on condition of anonymity. According to him, the goal is to make it impossible for Kiev to deliver military equipment to the front, which, among other things, is provided to Ukraine by Western allies.
Railway infrastructure plays a vital role in Ukraine not only for civil transport, but also for industry and the military. The country halted air traffic at the start of the February 2022 Russian invasion due to fears of attacks. But even the railway network has become the target of Russian strikes in the last more than two years, as was the case, for example, in April last year in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. At that time, the Russian army hit a station full of people fleeing the fighting to the west of the country. According to the Ukrainian authorities, over 50 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Since March of this year, Russia has also stepped up its attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. According to Kiev, Moscow is preparing a new major offensive, at a time when the United States approved a new billion-dollar military aid package to Ukraine after months of delays caused by internal political disputes.
Tags: Air Force Missiles Artillery Russians claim hit train carrying Western weapons concerted attack
