Why did Russia attack Ukrainian railways and they failed? | World News

Throughout the Ukrainian war, Russia has been attacking the country’s railway system.

UkraineThe state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia is the country’s largest employer, with more than 200,000 employees on 233,000 square miles of land.

It was a lifeline for millions of people who fled the country during the war and has proven vital to Ukraine’s strategic goals.

Russia has launched dozens of attacks on rail infrastructure, hitting its tracks, bridges and substations with a range of weapons including rockets and cruise missiles.

While many of these caused only minor and repairable damage to the railways, the missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station caused more serious human toll Kill dozens of civilians trying to escape.

It’s not just people being transported.

The vast rail network has been used to supply vital Western arms shipments that help Ukrainian troops defend territory from an initial Russian attack and help transport food.

Damage so far is just ‘disruptions and delays’

Ukrainian officials say Russia aims to destroy the country’s infrastructure – while the Russian Defense Ministry has acknowledged that its railway attack was aimed at disrupting the flow of Western weapons.

If Russia’s goal is to cripple Western arms supplies, it has so far failed, experts say.

Defense and intelligence experts said the attack on the railway was largely seen as “destructive” but did not cause significant and lasting damage.

They pointed to two main reasons why their forces failed to effectively damage the railroad – the ability of Ukrainian forces to repair damage and difficulty hitting moving targets.

Russia ‘difficult’ to hit moving targets

Ed Arnold, a European security researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, told Sky News that Russia faced difficulties hitting moving targets because of its weapons capabilities.

“Russian attacks cannot hit rail networks because they lack the precision-guided munitions needed to hit military targets. At best, they can disrupt and delay rail movement, not stop it,” he said.

“Unless Russia targets the network more broadly and uses more precision-guided munitions, the situation is likely to continue.”

In addition to failing to hit moving targets, Ukrainian forces were able to quickly repair damaged sites with little or no disruption to service.

Ukrzaliznytsia deployed teams of workers around the clock to repair the tracks and reroute trains – while officials traveled across the country to inspect the damage.

According to its head Oleksandr Kamyshin, the daily number of passengers on the Ukrzaliznytsia train has reached 200,000.

Mr Kamisin, 37, said last month that the longest delay on the network lasted “less than an hour”.

Attacks scaled down to avoid damage for future use

In addition to questions about Russia’s weapons capabilities, other experts said the fighting force may not want to completely destroy the railway’s infrastructure.

Analysts at McKenzie Intelligence Services who study geospatial data and imagery say combat troops may avoid wreaking havoc on the rail network if they intend to use it to transport their own equipment.

They added, however, that the two sides would seek to destroy parts of the rail network “if they thought they would lose ground in order to deny the other side its use and slow down their operations”.

Western investment to fix grain problem

In addition to transporting arms and personnel, the railway proved to be key to Ukraine’s food exports.

With Russia’s Black Sea fleet blocking ports, grain runs the risk of rotting in silos unless it has access to markets around the world.

In response, Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged £10m at the G7 summit to help repair damaged Ukrainian rail infrastructure to transport food out of the country.

deadliest attack

Although there has been little long-term damage to rail infrastructure, Russian attacks on railways have killed dozens of civilians and workers.

While Russia admits to targeting military supplies, it denies targeting civilians despite a series of attacks.

On April 8, a Russian missile hit a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, killing 50 people.

The station was used as an evacuation point for thousands of civilians trying to flee the country, in what could mark the deadliest attack on the railway to date.

Since the Russian invasion, the United Nations says more than 14 million people have fled their homes.

Some traveled to western Ukraine, others to neighboring countries like Poland and beyond.

While many Ukrainian men remained in the country after being barred from leaving shortly after the war began, many of those who fled included women and young children.

The Kremlin has denied responsibility for the attack and blamed Ukraine, saying its own forces did not use the kind of missiles that hit the station.

In addition to the attack on the station, the head of Ukzaliznica said that as of last month, 122 railway workers had been killed on the job and in their homes, and another 155 had been injured.

While Russia continues to attack the railroad, it is unclear how far it will go.

Either way, the Ukrainian military is keeping the system running due to doubts about its capabilities and the lasting damage caused by the strike so far.