A railway line behind the front line of the Ukrainian war was bombed this week, destroying a freight train and halting services, with Ukraine claiming responsibility and Russia saying it would open a criminal terrorism investigation.
The rail line to Valiki in the Belgorod region of Russia, just 50 miles from the fighting at the Vovchansk “Meat Grinder” on the Kharkov Front, was closed on Tuesday night after a freight train derailed, severely damaging the locomotive and sending 11 freight cars off the tracks.
Ukrainian state media claims that the derailment was actually an attack by Ukrainian partisans, and that the tracks were blocked by a joint operation between Ukraine's defense intelligence and Ukrainian special forces. Kiev claimed that the freight train was providing logistical support to Russian troops and was derailed by explosives, “paralyzing” a major transport artery.
Russia, however, claimed the train cars affected by the attack were empty and there were no casualties. Moscow confirmed that the tracks had been blocked, local trains were being replaced by buses and long-distance trains were being diverted to other routes. Two recovery trains were sent to the scene to clear the tracks.
Russia's Western Regional Transport Investigation Department said it had opened a criminal investigation under Russia's criminal code covering terrorist attacks, and believed the explosion was the result of “outsider interference.” Russian state media reported that one side of the double track was reopened the next day but no update had been issued on the other, suggesting that partisan attacks were still disrupting logistical supplies in this rough stretch of road close to some of the fiercest fighting in today's war.
With the end of the Cold War, the military use of rail was forgotten by Western military planners, but has seen a major revival in the course of the Ukrainian war, in which both sides have relied heavily on rail infrastructure to transport troops and supplies through a region where roads have long been in poor condition and air transport has been nearly impossible.
This revival made the railroads themselves a strategic focus, with them coming under heavy attack. Russian Confrontation Investments in Ukraine's rail infrastructure will likely slow the country's acceptance of foreign aid; and Continues todayMeanwhile, Ukraine has repeatedly used partisan sabotage teams to blow up Russian trains inside Russia and in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Russia operates a series of armoured military trains to thwart saboteurs, but their effectiveness has been limited, and the long distances they travel make effectively guarding the railways a near-impossible task.
