Number of fires at Russian railroads increases in March, military intelligence says

Railroad fires increased in several Russian regions in March, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) said on April 16.

Railways are a key means of transportation used by the Russian army to carry equipment and personnel to the combat zone in Ukraine and Russia’s Kursk Oblast, which the Ukrainian military entered in August 2024.

Pro-Ukrainian partisans regularly sabotage railroads to hinder Russian military efforts.

The March fires destroyed six units of traction rolling stock in Moscow, Samara, and Tver oblasts, as well as nine railway signaling, centralization, and interlocking devices in the Republic of Mari El, Stavropol, and Krasnoyarsk regions, according to military intelligence.

In Moscow Oblast, a power transformer and a tank car with fuel also burned down.

“The fight against the supply of ammunition and military equipment to the Russian occupation army by rail continues,” the statement read.

In late March, the Atesh partisan group sabotaged a railway line in Russia’s Smolensk Oblast, disrupting the transport of military cargo toward Bryansk and Kursk oblasts.

The Atesh movement regularly conducts sabotage attacks in Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

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The Kyiv IndependentDaria Shulzhenko