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KYIV: Russia has unleashed a massive wave of attacks on Ukraine’s railways since the summer, using new tactics to hit key nodes with long-range drones, but the network is holding up for now, the CEO of the state railway company told Reuters.
“Their first aim is to sow panic among passengers, their second aim is to hit the overall economy,” Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said in an interview held in a rail carriage at Kyiv’s central station.
There did not appear to be a particular focus on targeting military cargo. “These are all, in essence, strikes on civilian infrastructure,” he said.

RAILWAY ATTACKS HAVE INTENSIFIED
Ukrzaliznytsia, the vast state-owned railway company, employs 170,000 people and has been the target of Russian attacks since the start of Russia’s invasion three-and-a-half years ago, but attacks have intensified, causing regular delays.
Since the start of the war in February 2022, the railway network has been a lifeline for people moving around Ukraine and out of the country, as all civilian flights have been grounded.
World leaders, from French President Emmanuel Macron to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former US President Joe Biden, have arrived in wartime Ukraine by train.
The rail company’s popular sleeper carriages are seen as a reliable way to travel overnight and arrive early in the morning in cities many hundreds of miles away, until the latest Russian onslaught began to delay passengers by several hours.
The railway is also crucial for transporting military equipment and commercial cargo, although volumes of the latter have dropped significantly in wartime, denting the company’s finances.
Pertsovskyi said the attacks, which have hit dozens of substations, were linked to the dramatic increase in long-range drones that Russia’s military-industrial complex is producing.
“Previously, they simply did not have sufficient resources for a single combat drone, such as a Shahed, to hunt down a locomotive. Now they can afford to use Shaheds to hit individual locomotives rather than strategic targets.”

QUICK RECOVERY BUT AT A COST
For now, the railway is recovering from each blow, he said.
The immediate disruption to trains after an attack usually lasts six to 12 hours and electric locomotives are switched out for diesel while power is restored.
Pertsovskyi said disruption had been minimized and the transit of military cargoes had not been impacted.
“It’s a marathon ... They strike us, we recover,” he said. “They strike us, we recover.”
Since the middle of summer, Russia has attacked railway electricity substations and other infrastructure nodes with an average of six to seven long-range Shahed kamikaze drones most nights, according to Pertsovskyi.
“They are ... acting systematically, knocking out one substation after another or key rail hubs in order to stop passenger trains and sow panic and distrust among the people.”
Five or six key rail hubs have been bombarded since the summer, he said.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Russia denies targeting Ukrainian civilians.
The railway also faces sabotage from agents recruited by Russia in Ukraine. Ukraine’s security services regularly announce the detention of people they accuse of plotting to blow up vulnerable points on the network.
This is less of a threat than Russian airstrikes, but sabotage is on the rise with dozens of cases recorded this year, Pertsovskyi said.
And diesel locomotives are about five times more expensive to run per kilometer than their electric equivalents — an additional headache for a company with deep financial issues.
The World Bank estimates that roughly 30 percent of Ukraine’s railway is in a “damage-repair” cycle.
Some bridges had been hit many times over by Russian forces throughout the war and repaired each time, but Pertsovskyi declined to specify which ones, citing security reasons. The company would keep up the pace of repairs, he said.
“If we slow down a little and let the enemy strike and destroy, then they will be even more drawn to the smell of blood.”

BEIJING: The leader of a US congressional delegation to China warned Tuesday of the “risk of a misunderstanding” between the two countries’ militaries as advances in defense technology move at breakneck speed.
Adam Smith, the most senior Democrat on Washington’s Armed Services Committee, told journalists in Beijing that China needs to talk more about its military with other global powers “for basic de-confliction.”
“We’ve seen this with our ships, our planes, their ships, their planes coming entirely too close to one another,” he said at a news conference at the US Embassy.
“We need to have a better conversation about de-conflicting those things.”
The four-person delegation also includes other members of the same Armed Services Committee – Democrats Ro Khanna and Chrissy Houlahan – as well as Republican congressman Michael Baumgartner, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The group on Monday met Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun, with whom they talked about the importance of “working through our differences” and more candid dialogue, according to a statement from the US side.
Dong called on the visitors to “remove disruptive and restrictive factors” between them, China’s Xinhua state news agency reported.
Speaking on Tuesday alongside the other lawmakers and the US Ambassador to China, David Perdue, Smith said: “AI and drone warfare and cyber and space is moving so rapidly and innovation is happening so quickly.
“The risk of a misunderstanding of capabilities on one side or the other is great,” he said, adding the two sides need to talk so they “don’t stumble in any sort of conflicts.”
Tariffs and TikTok
The bipartisan congressional delegation comes just days after Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump spoke by telephone for the second time since the return to the White House of Trump, who has tried to keep a lid on tensions despite his once virulent criticism of China.
Trump said he would meet Xi on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea starting at the end of next month and that he would travel to China next year.
He said Xi would also visit the United States at an unspecified time and that the two leaders would speak again by telephone.
Both sides dramatically hiked tariffs against each other during a months-long dispute earlier this year, disrupting global supply chains.
Washington and Beijing then reached a deal to reduce levies, with the United States imposing 30 percent duties on imports of Chinese goods and China hitting US products with a 10 percent tariff. The deal expires in November.
Smith’s group on Monday held talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, in which they discussed the ongoing trade talks and the hot-button issues of fentanyl, critical minerals and the future of TikTok.
The White House has said a US version of TikTok would feature a homegrown model of the app’s prized algorithm, potentially clearing one of the main obstacles to keeping the Chinese-owned platform online in the United States.
Asked about the TikTok issue, Smith said: “My understanding is that I don’t think that has been 100 percent resolved.”
The delegation will also meet China’s National People’s Congress Chairman Zhao Leji and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.