Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Why Russia is escalating attacks on Ukraine's rail network

Transcript

Why Russia is escalating attacks on Ukraine's rail network · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, Russia is promising to intensify strikes on Ukraine in
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: response to the Election Day drone attacks on Moscow. Russia
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: has been escalating its own aerial campaign on critical infrastructure,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: including Ukraine's national rail network. Russian attacks have damaged or
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: destroyed more than 500 locomotives since the start of the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: full-scale invasion. Moscow's Ministry of Defense now admits to deliberately
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: targeting trains and Ukraine's 20,000 kilometers of track. Ukraine is
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: now stepping up its own efforts to defend the rail network,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: which is essential for the country's war logistics and economic survival.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: DW's Grzegorz Szymanowski has this report.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: We are about to evacuate. Get your warm clothes and
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: your valuables.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Our train is some two hours away from Kiev and
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: a Russian drone has been detected. Halina Korobko is in
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: charge of the next steps.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: The driver relays the information to the conductor and they
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: relay it to us, so we're evacuating now.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: This is the protocol whenever a Russian drone gets within
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: 100 kilometers from a moving train. The crew now has
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: about 10 minutes to stop the train and bring all
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: passengers to safety.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Go there, go there.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: The worry is that our train could be the actual target.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: We stopped at this small station. Now everyone was told
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: to move away 200 meters from the train. They also
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: turned down the lights in the train to make it
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: less visible. Russia has massively stepped up attacks on Ukrainian
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: trains this year. Moscow says it's targeting railway infrastructure and
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: military logistics, but passenger trains are hit regularly. Thanks to
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: the new safety protocol, casualties have been limited. Here the
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: passengers react calmly. Some check air raid alerts.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: This is the second evacuation for me today.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: It's OK.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: I made sure there is a building between me and
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: the train, that there is an obstacle there. And that's it.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Last year, taking the train was much easier. Sadly, this
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: is the reality now.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: Yes, we're getting delayed. We arrive later, but it's safer
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: that way. It's better to lose time than to lose lives.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: For Halina, evacuations are now routine.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: We are worried, but we've gotten used to that. I mean,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: we're all human, but we are getting used to it.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: We have to evacuate every day, sometimes even four or
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: seven times in one direction.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Luckily, Halina has never had to experience an actual attack.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: After an hour of waiting, the threat is over and
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: we can board again. Watch your step.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: Use your flashlights.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Take your time.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Carriage 7, the evacuation is over.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Back on board, Halina invites us for tea. She's been
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: a train attendant for over four years.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Our work is very much needed, but it's hard right now.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Many railroad workers and train drivers have already been killed.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: So we're very sad. I feel very sorry for those people.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: We arrive in Kiev with just an hour delay. Halina
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: reports the train and carries on through the night.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: That report by DW correspondent Grzegorz Szymanowski, who's just returned
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: from Ukraine and joins us here in the studio. Good
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: to see you. People who travel by train in Ukraine
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: these days, they're facing risks more and more as we
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: as we've seen. Most people there really don't have any alternative,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: do they? I mean, what else can they do? It's true.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: For many passengers, there's no better alternative. Ukraine is a
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: vast country and the railway has long been the backbone.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Very reliable, very much working on time, even during the war.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: But now with this increased campaign against the railways by Russia,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: some regions have suspended passenger trains, specific trains. Passenger train
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: lines have been also suspended and they are changing to
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: road transport, to buses. But buses are also not necessarily
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: that much safer. Just last week in southern Ukraine, a
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: minibus was hit by an FPV drone, killing five passengers
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: on this bus. So for many passengers we spoke to,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: they say that they are ready to take the risk,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: but also that they have trust in these new safety
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: protocols that exist. the Ukrainian railways have introduced.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Why is Russia targeting the trains? What's its strategy with this?
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: They seem to be going particularly after the locomotives, the
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: engines of the trains. And I've spoken to Ukrainian experts
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: and they told me there are several reasons. First of all,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Russia wants to cripple Ukrainian railways as part of a
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: broader strategy to target Ukrainian economy. They want to limit
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Ukraine's ability to export goods, grain in particular. Then there
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: is Ukraine's military logistics that Russia wants to disrupt. Ukraine
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: is obviously also using railways to transport military cargo. And
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: this is why Russia wants to limit Ukraine's capabilities of
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: doing that. And then finally, Russia also wants to cut
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Ukraine from its Western supporters. This could have been one
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: of the reasons of the attack last week or when
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Russia attacked on the very line that is used by
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: foreigners and many diplomats who are traveling to Kiev by train.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: So these are all the explanations why Russia is doing that.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: President Zelenskyy, has said that the Ukrainian government will now
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: step up its efforts to protect rail travel in Ukraine.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: But what can he practically do?
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: Well, Terry, one of the reasons why Russia has been
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: so successful recently with these attacks is that are the
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: new drones that they've introduced, the jet-powered drones that are
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: traveling much faster and are harder to shoot down. So
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: The main task for the Ukrainians now is to be
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: able to shoot these faster drones down. And just last weekend,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: President Zelensky announced that Ukraine has for the first time
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: successfully deployed an interceptor. And he posted two videos showing
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: how Ukraine is, in fact, showing two of these jet-powered
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: drones down. So the question now is, will they be
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: able to scale it up and how fast? But in
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: the short term, it seems to be the plan for
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: the railway seems to be a mix of more air
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: defences and more jammers along the railway lines.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Ukraine is appealing to other countries to provide new
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: locomotives to replace the ones that have been destroyed, or
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: at least to help repair those that have been destroyed.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Are other countries responding with help? Yes, overall.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: More than 500 locomotives have been destroyed since the beginning
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: of the war, most of them in 2026 alone. So
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: this shows the scale of the problem. And the problem
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: with getting new locomotives is that Ukraine uses a wider gauge.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: So it's not that simple. The Western Europe cannot simply just.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Give their locomotives for the Ukrainians to replace them. They
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: need to fit this wider gauge. Slovakia announced that they
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: want to give free locomotives. Moldova wants to give 20 locomotives,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: but still, it's just a fraction of what's needed. Right now,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: the priority for the Ukrainians is to really collect funds
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: to buy second-hand locomotives on the world markets to repair
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: the damaged ones and also to order the new ones.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: But this is going to take some time until they
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: arrive in Ukraine.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: That's a major logistical undertaking, not to mention the financial.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: The Ukrainian people are exhausted after four years of war,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I think it's safe to say. What effect is the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: new intensity of the Russian drone strikes? You mentioned the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: jet-powered drones that are really changing things a bit. What
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: effect is that having on public morale?
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, they are definitely contributing to the sleep deprivation,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: the overall anxiety. And the daytime attacks with these new drones,
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: they've been disrupting Public transport and education, particularly hard. The
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: school year has just started and it's been very hard
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: for students to meet in person, for example. And there
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: are worries, quite widespread worries now in Ukraine about the
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: upcoming winter, because we've seen in the last winter Russia
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: has already targeted Ukrainian energy grid and there were prolonged delays.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: periods of lack of heating and lack of electricity in
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: in big cities so people are now preparing for that
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: as good as they can i'm talking about the individual
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: capacity the state is working but people are also preparing
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: collecting power banks and buying generators And also some people
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: are telling us that they are considering leaving big cities,
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: Kiev in particular, if the situation there gets bad during
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: the winter. But obviously not everyone can afford that.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Grzegorz Szymanowski, our correspondent, thank you very much for your reporting.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: Thank you.