“LOZOVA, Ukraine -- Repairmen were patching up a railway station damaged by a Russian attack here in east Ukraine when an air-raid siren portended another barrage of explosive drones.
The workers rushed to a bomb shelter along with a dozen of the railway staff earlier this month, just as explosions and automatic gunfire from the city's air defenses rang out.
It is a familiar routine in Lozova. This transport hub has become a primary target in Russia's campaign to cut off a lifeline of the Ukrainian economy: the 15,000-mile network of railroads carrying more than 60% of the country's freight, along with weapons and soldiers to the front.
State railway company Ukrzaliznytsia says Russia has carried out more than 1,100 attacks on its infrastructure this year, roughly equal to the combined total in 2024 and 2023, hitting trains, control towers and depots, as well as the bridges the trains pass under and the substations powering the network. Moscow is also targeting a critical export route to south Ukraine, where trains packed with grain and other foodstuffs service ports on the Black Sea.
Earlier this month, a drone strike destroyed a train station in Fastiv near Kyiv.
Two separate attacks in October caused a power outage that delayed trains throughout the country.
"It is a conflict on railways that is a deliberate, structured, well-planned and concentrated effort to stop the system from running," said Oleksandr Pertsovsky, the head of Ukrzaliznytsia, which is the country's biggest state enterprise with around 180,000 employees. "Pretty much every link in the chain is being targeted."
Moscow says it strikes Ukraine's military-industrial enterprises, energy facilities that support their operations and port infrastructure that is used for military purposes.
When the skies closed for commercial flights and roads became clogged following events in February 2022, they ferried millions of people to safety. Carriages designed for 50 sometimes hosted 400. World leaders arrived by rail in Kyiv to pledge support for the country.
Now, as Moscow pressures Kyiv to accept terms for peace, the railways are in the crosshairs.
Ukrzaliznytsia says it is doing everything to both safeguard its operations and protect its workforce. Railway drivers entering the city of Kherson now wear helmets for protection. Train roofs are lined with antidrone jammers.
But in towns such as Lozova, where the station is part of a sprawling collection of buildings that together serve as a critical logistical node in one of Europe's most extensive rail networks, there is a limit to what can be done.
Lozova services routes to the major cities of Kramatorsk to the east, Kharkiv and Poltava to the north, and Dnipro and Odesa to the west. Trains loaded with weapons pass along the railway line heading to the front. Soldiers are frequent visitors from a front line that is steadily drawing closer.
"We just drop everything whenever there is an air raid siren," said Nina Zabela, the head of Lozova railway station, where she has worked for the past 32 years. "The priority is safeguarding lives."
When Russia attacked Fastiv, southwest of Kyiv, this month, it destroyed the railway station and its control tower and damaged Ukraine's largest suburban commuter train depot.
"It is a constant fight to preserve the country's logistics, and that's the commitment we made on day one," said Pertsovsky.” [1]
1. World News: Ukraine's Rail Network Becomes a Target --- Russia's campaign to cut off a lifeline of economy hits Kyiv's source of pride. Luxmoore, Matthew. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 29 Dec 2025: A7.
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