Russia cuts Kiev's strategic railway line, pushing Ukrainian army into a difficult position

A bigger storm is brewing, a massive Russian military assault on Ukraine's key transport route, its railway system.

According to public data from Rodion Milosnik, the ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in just one week, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) carried out 3,500 attacks with UAVs, missiles and artillery on infrastructure in the regions of Ukraine controlled by Russia.

In response, the Russian Armed Forces (RFAF) launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s infrastructure. Like a “superstorm”, the RFAF attack swept through and destroyed Ukraine’s infrastructure. One of the main targets was the Ukrainian railway system.

During the Soviet era, Ukraine served as the western front against NATO. In the event of World War III, Ukraine would be the launching point for the million-strong Soviet army that would sweep across Europe; and would also be the Soviet Union's largest logistics base and logistics center.

The Soviet Union built one of the most advanced railway systems in Europe at the time in Ukraine. Ukraine's national railway network stretches 22,000 km, second only to Russia in Europe. It includes six railway companies, 1,340 stations, 129 passenger rail hubs, 48 ​​locomotive depots and 400,000 railway workers.

When the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, it was thanks to the railway system that Ukraine could continuously receive military aid from NATO, transporting troops, weapons, ammunition and many other necessities to the front lines in Donbass, Zaporozhye, Kharkov, Kherson...

Ukraine's railway system is like a dense network of veins, helping the AFU to stop the relentless attack of 700,000 Russian troops on the front line. And Moscow is determined to paralyze Ukraine's railway system.

Russia is currently focusing its attacks on all key junctions of the Ukrainian railway network, including stations, railway bridges, tunnels, trains, electrical systems (as Ukrainian railways are fully electrified) and railway repair shops.

According to the statistics of the AFU General Staff, 30% of the frontline fighting is concentrated in the city of Pokrovsk, which has become a key point on the entire Russian-Ukrainian battlefield. The Russian army has concentrated 170,000 troops on an all-out attack here. Meanwhile, the AFU is also making full use of the railway system to continuously increase its forces and firepower to intercept and attack the Russian army.

In order to cut off the Ukrainian railway system as quickly as possible and cut off the AFU supply line, the RFAF launched a massive, high-intensity attack on the Ukrainian railway system. This attack included attacks on active trains, stations, railway support facilities and the railway power supply system.

According to The Guardian, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba claimed that between January and October 2025, the Russian military carried out 800 concentrated attacks on Ukraine's railway system, destroying more than 3,000 facilities and causing more than $1 billion in damage.

The RFAF attack on the railway system had three main objectives: first, to cut off the transport of Ukrainian grain to the port of Odessa and generate export revenue; second, to disable the Ukrainian army's ability to mobilize large-scale forces; and finally, to cut off NATO military supply routes.

Russia has found a comprehensive solution to cut off the “arteries” of Ukraine. One of the many aspects of this solution is the deployment of Gerans (Geranium) attack UAVs to attack enemy targets in the “grey zone”, on the front lines and in the near rear.

The Gerans UAV is being modified to replace the Vikhr-1 or AS-13/18 Kingbolt ground attack missiles, which are only used in exceptional cases on the front line due to their high cost. With the support of spare parts suppliers, the production of Geran-2/3 UAVs increased sharply in the spring and summer of 2025.

The head of the Lozova railway station in Kharkiv province reported that Russian military Geran-3 long-range attack drones repeatedly pursued and attacked Ukrainian trains moving at high speed.

Russian research institutes have been involved in upgrading the Gerans UAV, which will integrate attack capabilities using direct control from the Gerans UAV's camera and antenna with beam direction, to counter electronic countermeasures.

These technical improvements have helped the Gerans UAV attack mobile targets such as trains in areas near the front line, similar to the Vikhr-1 or AS-13/18 Kingbolt guided missiles, but at a much cheaper price. (Photo source: Military Review, Sina, Kyiv Post).

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