EDITORIAL: Russia targets Ukrainian locomotives — killing the rails to kill the nation

EDITORIAL: Russia targets Ukrainian locomotives — killing the rails to kill the nation

Introduction: When trains become weapons of war

Three strikes, one death, one message

On June 25, 2026, Russian forces launched three precise strikes against locomotives belonging to Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine's state railway operator, in the oblasts of Zaporizhzhia and Sumy. One assistant conductor was killed. Two crews were evacuated in time. The driver of the third locomotive survived — but the man in the rear cab could not be saved.

Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia's board, posted on Facebook: "Today, the enemy continued deliberately targeting Ukrzaliznytsia locomotives. There were two strikes in Zaporizhzhia and one in Sumy oblast. We managed to evacuate two crews in advance, and neither was injured. However, the third strike in Zaporizhzhia ended in tragedy — the driver managed to take shelter, but we could not save the assistant, who was in the rear cab."

What this tactic reveals

This is not the first time Russia has targeted Ukrainian locomotives. It is a deliberate, systematic, documented tactic. Pertsovskyi noted that dozens of railway crews are saved every week through evacuation protocols — confirming that the threat is frequent enough to justify standing operational procedures.

Behind that statistic lies a clear Russian military doctrine: destroy the Ukrainian railway network to cut military supply lines, halt civilian evacuations, paralyze Ukraine's war economy. Trains are not collateral victims in this war — they are explicitly chosen strategic targets.

Ukrzaliznytsia: the backbone of a country at war

The network holding the front

Ukrzaliznytsia is not simply a public transit operator. In wartime, it is the main artery through which everything keeping Ukraine alive and fighting flows. Military equipment delivered by Western partners — tanks, ammunition, spare parts — travels predominantly by rail. Soldiers on leave and rotation use the same tracks. Civilians fleeing combat zones use them to escape bombardment.

Since 2022, Ukrzaliznytsia has shown remarkable resilience under Russian strikes. Technicians repair tracks within hours of attacks. Schedules adapt in real time to security conditions. Crews continue driving their trains under permanent mortal threat — not out of abstract heroism, but because Ukraine needs it.

The civilian economy that runs on rails

Beyond military use, Ukrzaliznytsia is indispensable to Ukraine's civilian economy. Food goods, construction materials, industrial products, agricultural exports — everything that makes up the economic life of a country of 40 million people moves on Ukrainian rails. Paralysing the railway means paralysing the economy. Paralysing the economy means starving the country of a resource different from ammunition but equally vital: the money to keep defending itself.

Russia knows this. That is precisely why locomotives are targets. This is not brute-force brutality — it is economic strategy waged with missiles.

The geography of the strikes: Zaporizhzhia and Sumy, two distinct fronts

Zaporizhzhia: the south's railway hub

Zaporizhzhia is one of the most heavily used regions on the wartime Ukrainian railway network. A major industrial city, it is a crucial logistics hub supplying Ukrainian forces on the southern front. Two of the three strikes on June 25, 2026 struck there. That is no coincidence — it is Russia's explicit recognition of this artery's strategic importance.

That same morning, Russian forces also attacked fuel stations in Zaporizhzhia and Sumy, injuring four people. The combination — fuel and locomotives — sketches a coherent strategy: simultaneously deprive the rail network of its engines and the fuel needed to run them. A strategy of paralysis through a pincer attack.

Sumy: the region holding the northeast

Sumy oblast has been on the front line since the start of the war. Bordering Russia, it has endured invasion attempts, continuous bombardment, and cross-border incursions. Its railway line is essential for supplying defenders and evacuating civilians from a region under constant pressure.

Striking a locomotive in Sumy on June 25 fits this context: Russia is trying to cut the supply lines sustaining a region whose resistance carries a steep price for Moscow. Every locomotive destroyed in Sumy is a reduced supply capacity for the region's defenders.

Precision as doctrine: surgical strikes against the soul of the railway

Guided missiles against locomotives

Pertsovskyi used the word "precise" to describe the strikes of June 25. That word matters. It means Russia is not randomly targeting the rail network — it is specifically aiming at locomotives, the most expensive and hardest-to-replace elements of a train. Destroying rails can be repaired in hours by experienced crews. Destroying a locomotive requires months of acquisition procedures and international delivery.

This surgical precision reveals the existence of active Russian intelligence on Ukrainian railway movements. Russia knows where the locomotives are at the moment of striking. It has information sources or surveillance capabilities that allow it to identify targets with enough precision to succeed in this kind of attack. That is an operational security challenge Ukraine must continue to address.

The crew as secondary target

The fact that an assistant conductor was killed indicates that crews are exposed even when evacuation protocols work. Pertsovskyi specified that the driver had survived by taking shelter, but that the assistant in the rear cab could not be saved. The geographic precision of the strike — hitting the rear cab specifically — suggests directional explosive power or highly precise targeting of the engine itself.

This death is not collateral damage — it is the logical outcome of a policy of striking active locomotives with crews on board. Russia knows perfectly well that Ukrainian trains are not unmanned. Striking locomotives in service means deliberately endangering their crews. The assistant conductor's death is therefore an intentional consequence of Russian military doctrine, not an accident.

The doctrine of economic chaos: a total war strategy

Putin wages war not against armies — but against nations

Russia's strategy in Ukraine is not purely military in the conventional sense. Putin is waging war against Ukraine's capacity to function as a society. Winter strikes on power plants were meant to freeze the population. Strikes on markets terrorize civilians. Strikes on locomotives paralyze the vital flows that keep a country at war running.

This doctrine of total war against civilian infrastructure is documented, condemned by international organizations, and constitutes war crimes under international humanitarian law. Yet it continues. Diplomatic condemnations have not stopped the missiles. Only air defense can — and Ukraine still does not have enough.

The completion of the economic terror doctrine

The strikes on locomotives are part of a broader picture. In June 2026 alone, Russia has targeted energy infrastructure, fuel stations, bridges, port facilities, and railway lines. This is not a series of scattered incidents — it is a coordinated campaign aiming to simultaneously deprive Ukraine of its transport capacity, energy production, and logistics supply.

Pertsovskyi stated that "dozens of crews are saved every week." That seemingly ordinary sentence reveals the scale of the threat: attacks on Ukrainian railway workers are frequent and systematic enough to require standing weekly evacuation protocols. This level of deliberate targeting is unprecedented in recent European conflicts.

Ukrzaliznytsia's resistance: an institution that refuses to buckle

Numbers that defy comprehension

Ukrzaliznytsia has kept operating through all 1,581 days of open war. Millions of passengers. Tens of thousands of tonnes of military and civilian freight. Thousands of crew rotations under permanent threat. This logistical performance is one of the least-told stories of this war — perhaps because it does not fit the Russian propaganda narrative of Ukraine as a collapsed state.

On the contrary: a functioning Ukrzaliznytsia is living proof that Ukraine refuses to die. Every train that reaches its destination despite the strikes is a silent victory. Every crew that boards the day after an attack is an act of daily resistance that the international media should cover as much as ground battles.

Logistical innovation under pressure

Ukrzaliznytsia has developed rapid adaptation protocols that exist in no pre-war railway management manual. Routes are diversified to avoid targeted sectors. Schedules are made unpredictable to complicate enemy targeting. Track repair teams are deployed with a speed that has stunned allied military observers.

This operational agility has a human cost: technicians work through the night, at risk of secondary strikes, in conditions no one anticipated for a civilian railway operator. They deserve the same recognition as frontline fighters — because they too are on the front line of a war that does not distinguish between uniforms and work overalls.

Ukraine's response: between defense and continuity

Air defense as first necessity

The best protection for Ukrainian locomotives is not hiding the trains — it is destroying the missiles before they arrive. Ukraine has been requesting additional air defense systems for months — Patriots, NASAMS, Iris-T. Every system delivered is one more Russian missile that does not hit a locomotive, a power plant, or a residential building.

The Ramstein conference of June 2026 produced significant support commitments. But between announcing support and the operational delivery of a Patriot system capable of protecting a rail network, there are months — sometimes years — of procedures. In the meantime, Ukrainian locomotives continue to be targets.

Continuity as a political act

The political decision by Ukrzaliznytsia to maintain operations despite human losses is deeply symbolic. It says: Ukraine will not stop. It says that even the death of an assistant conductor on a Zaporizhzhia track will not be enough to stop the trains. This continuity is both a message to Ukrainians — your country is still functioning — and a message to Moscow: your infrastructure attrition strategy will not produce the capitulation you are hoping for.

Pertsovskyi stated it explicitly: "Every life lost in Russian attacks is a tragedy that will not be forgotten." But he did not announce a suspension of operations. He announced that the trains will keep running. Because continuity, in this context, is a form of resistance.

International law confronting the reality of the strikes

Documented crimes, absent prosecutions

The deliberate targeting of civilian railway infrastructure outside active combat constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law, notably the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols. Ukrainian locomotives on June 25, 2026 were not carrying armed soldiers — they were carrying civilian crews on tracks serving both civilian purposes and logistics support.

The International Criminal Court has already issued arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and his former children's rights commissioner. Files on Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure are documented by investigators from the UN, the EU, and independent organizations. These files accumulate. But effective prosecutions remain distant — and meanwhile, the missiles continue.

Impunity as an escalation factor

The absence of immediate judicial consequences sends a dangerous signal: Russia can strike railway workers without paying a price. Every unpunished strike encourages the next. This logic of impunity is one of the most underestimated factors in the conflict's escalation.

The response to this impunity cannot be purely judicial — international courts are too slow. It must be strategic: strengthen Ukrainian defenses to the point where strikes on locomotives become impossible to execute without prohibitive cost for Russian forces. That is the only deterrent that works against a power that holds international law in contempt.

The international response: insufficient, necessary, urgent

Condemnation is no longer enough

The international community has condemned Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure hundreds of times since 2022. Every condemnation is right. Every condemnation is insufficient. UN General Assembly resolutions, EU Council statements, G7 communiqués — all of this is necessary to maintain the record of international law — but it does not protect locomotives or their crews.

What protects locomotives is air defense. And air defense costs money, requires systems, technicians, interceptor munitions. Ukraine's partners have this capacity — they have not yet deployed it at the scale of the threat. That is the central challenge this editorial attempts to address.

The Ramstein conference as a credibility test

The Ramstein conference of June 2026 produced commitments on Patriot systems, drones, and long-range munitions. These commitments are welcome. Their test will not be the announcement — it will be effective delivery on Ukrainian soil within a timeframe compatible with immediate operational needs.

Every locomotive destroyed before the promised systems are delivered is evidence of the gap between promises and operational reality. Closing that gap is not just a logistics question — it is a question of political will to prioritize deliveries to Ukraine above national bureaucratic considerations.

The railway people: testimony of an invisible resistance

Men and women working in the shadows

Ukrainian railway workers form a community of tens of thousands of people who continue their work under conditions that stretch the imagination. They know their colleagues are being killed. They see the damage at stations. They receive security alerts indicating high-risk zones. And they report for duty the next morning.

This is not abstract heroism — it is often economic necessity coupled with a sense of collective duty. These workers know that if they stop, Ukrainian troops will be without the ammunition they need. They know that if the trains stop running, civilians will be unable to flee. That weight of responsibility, carried daily, is one of the most silent and profound expressions of Ukrainian resistance.

The assistant conductor with no name in the dispatches

In official reports, the victim of June 25 is described as "the assistant conductor," without a first name or biography. That is not indifference — it is the speed at which war processes its dead. Behind that job title is a man with a family, friends, plans. He got up that morning to go to work in a country that needed its trains. He will not come home.

Pertsovskyi said this death would not be forgotten. We have an obligation to make sure that is not merely a formula — that the lessons of this death translate into deployed air defense systems, improved protection protocols, and the political will to stop leaving Ukrainian railway workers to die in trains targeted by Russian missiles.

The economic stakes: when the rails stop, Ukraine bleeds

The real cost of a destroyed locomotive

A modern locomotive costs between two and five million euros depending on type and capabilities. But the real cost of a destroyed locomotive in Ukraine far exceeds its replacement value: it includes the lost transport capacity during the months that replacement takes, the morale of crews who see their tools targeted, and the signal effect this destruction sends to economic partners hesitating to invest in a country whose infrastructure is deliberately targeted.

Russia calculates this multiplier cost. Every destroyed locomotive costs far more than its replacement price — it costs confidence in reconstruction, operational logistics capacity, and human lives. It is a strategic investment for Moscow: a few missiles each worth a few hundred thousand dollars produce economic and psychological damage that multiplies.

Economic resilience as strategic victory

Despite these strikes, Ukraine's economy keeps running. It is contracting — projections for June 2026 show near-zero growth after the spring's infrastructure strikes. But it is not collapsing. Agricultural exports continue through alternative corridors. Tax revenues continue to fund the war effort. The population's economic mobilization remains at high levels.

This economic resilience is itself a strategic victory. It frustrates the Russian doctrine of economic exhaustion and proves Ukraine can survive levels of destruction that most European economies could not absorb.

Kyiv's strategy against the rail doctrine

Striking deep to protect the trains

The best response by Ukrzaliznytsia to Russian strikes on its locomotives is not purely defensive. Ukraine has long understood that passive defense alone is not enough. Striking Russian air bases, missile depots, and enemy logistics centers deep behind the lines directly reduces the number of missiles available to target Ukrainian infrastructure.

Ukraine's long-range strike strategy — against refineries, ammunition depots, military-industrial infrastructure — is partly designed to reduce Russia's capacity to produce and deploy the missiles that target Ukrainian locomotives. It is an active defense that complements passive air defense.

Dispersion and resilience as railway doctrine

Ukrzaliznytsia has developed operational dispersion practices to reduce the vulnerability of its assets. Locomotives are no longer concentrated in predictable fixed depots — they are distributed, relocated, concealed in less predictable positions. This constant adaptation to enemy intelligence is costly in organizational terms but essential for the network's survival.

These adaptations are not made public for obvious operational security reasons. What Pertsovskyi has disclosed publicly — the crew evacuation protocols that work, the dozens of lives saved weekly — is the visible part of this adaptation. The invisible part is equally impressive.

The duty of memory: naming those the war erases

One death among thousands — yet singular

The assistant conductor killed on June 25, 2026 in the rear cab of a locomotive in Zaporizhzhia will probably be forgotten in the grand chronicles of this war. Ukrainian civilian casualties are counted in the tens of thousands. Every name dissolves into the number. That is one of the deepest cruelties of mass warfare: the individual disappears into the statistic.

Pertsovskyi promised his death would not be forgotten. We must take that promise seriously — not as a rhetorical formula, but as an operational commitment. His death must be the final argument for accelerating air defense deliveries. It must appear in war crimes files. It must be recalled in every conference where Ukraine's support is discussed.

The registry of Ukrainian railway losses

Since the war began, Ukrzaliznytsia has lost dozens of employees killed in Russian strikes — drivers, mechanics, signal operators, security staff. These names deserve a dedicated memorial acknowledging that Ukrainian resistance is not purely military — it also belongs to every civilian who kept doing their job despite the threat.

Ukraine has a strong tradition of collective memory. The walls of heroes built in many Ukrainian cities since 2022 testify to this will to name, to not forget. The fallen railway workers deserve their place in that national memory.

The Ukrainian railway as a symbol of national sovereignty

Rails as an expression of national will

Since Ukrainian independence in 1991, the railway network has been one of the most concrete vehicles of national sovereignty. Ukrainian trains connect Lviv to Kharkiv, Odesa to Kyiv, the industrial Donbas cities to the country's western cultural centers. This network is also a metaphor for national unity: as long as it functions, Ukraine is one.

Russia knows this. Destroying the railway network means striking Ukrainian national unity as much as its military capacity. It means creating isolated regions, populations cut off from their resources, communities separated from one another. That is the logic of forced balkanization by missiles.

The sovereignty that travels on rails

Every train that crosses Ukraine from end to end reaffirms that the country is whole, united, functional. Every locomotive leaving its station despite security alerts is a political act as much as a professional one. Ukrainian railway workers are not merely driving trains — they are carrying the sovereignty of their nation, car by car.

Ukrzaliznytsia has maintained a transnational and functional network even during the most intense periods of the conflict. This performance is a demonstration of state capacity that defies the Russian narrative that Ukraine is an "artificial country" incapable of governing itself. The trains run. The country functions. The narrative collapses.

Conclusion: The trains will keep running

A message to Moscow

Russia targeted Ukrainian locomotives to stop Ukraine. It failed. Ukrzaliznytsia keeps operating. The trains keep running. The crews keep boarding. The death of the assistant conductor on June 25 is a tragedy Ukraine mourns — but not a capitulation.

This is not a sustainable situation. Ukraine needs additional air defense systems to protect its infrastructure and its workers. It needs international support so that Russian strikes become too costly to sustain. It needs, fundamentally, for the world to understand that targeting railway workers is a war crime that demands a response — not merely condemnation.

The steel of the rails against the steel of the missiles

Russia has the missiles. Ukraine has the determination. And for now, determination is winning over missiles — because the trains are still running. But determination alone does not hold indefinitely. It needs the air defense support the West has promised, and which every assistant conductor killed on a Zaporizhzhia track reminds us cannot wait. Ukraine's trains are still running. That is a victory. But every death on those rails is a partial defeat we could prevent. Air defense is not a luxury — it is the condition of survival for these men doing their job in a country at war.

The final word

Pertsovskyi said the dead will not be forgotten. I trust him. And I ask those reading these lines not to forget either — and to turn that memory into concrete political action in support of Ukraine. The trains do not stop. Neither do we.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

Columnist's transparency note

Sources and method

This editorial draws on the report by Ukrainian Pravda published on June 25, 2026, signed by Iryna Balachuk, documenting the three strikes on Ukrzaliznytsia locomotives in Zaporizhzhia and Sumy oblasts. Quotes from Oleksandr Pertsovskyi are reproduced exactly as published. No invented testimony. Contextual data on the Ukrainian rail network, economic impacts, and international law provisions come from verifiable public sources.

Editorial position

This editorial adopts an explicitly stated pro-Ukraine position and does not claim neutrality on the question of Russian aggression against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. It calls for increased air defense support for Ukraine. This position is grounded in ethical convictions and documented facts, not propaganda.

Sources

Primary sources

Ukrainian Pravda — Russians launch three precise strikes on locomotives: driver's assistant killed — June 25, 2026

Ukrinform — Coverage of strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure — June 2026

Ukraine Ministry of Defence — Operational reports on infrastructure strikes — 2026

Secondary sources

Kyiv Independent — Analysis of Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure — 2026

Euromaidan Press — Documentation of Russian war crimes against infrastructure — 2024–2026

Defence Ukraine — Analysis of Russian tactics against the rail network — 2026