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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Ukrzaliznytsia is creating monitoring centers to track drone and train movements across Ukraine amid a sharp rise in attacks on locomotives, stations, and infrastructure. In eight months of 2026, Ukrzaliznytsia recorded more than 1600 such strikes, and just on 16 September a Russian drone hit a train traveling from Kyiv to Mykolaiv. Earlier the company had already imposed temporary ticket sales restrictions on certain routes due to the security situation in the most shelled regions. The company admits it is difficult to fully protect trains from Russian weapons, so it is betting on early threat detection and rapid passenger evacuation.
The scale of the attacks was described by Ukrzaliznytsia representative Oleg Holovashchenko in a Deutsche Welle article. According to him, on 15 September a drone struck the locomotive of a passenger train at the Yahodyn border crossing, just two kilometers from Polish territory. No one was injured because Ukrzaliznytsia’s monitoring system detected the unmanned aircraft in advance, and the train was evacuated about 15 minutes before the strike.
According to the publication, at that time another train was at the same station carrying CIA Director David Petraeus, and earlier that day a train with former European leaders, including former British prime minister Boris Johnson, had stopped there. Ukrainian authorities believe that this diplomatic train was the real target of the drone, but it departed ahead of schedule.
"The railway keeps the country moving. It provides rapid evacuation of civilians from frontline areas, transports critically important cargo, and supports the movement of grain and other products across the country," said Foreign Minister Andriy Sybyha.
Sybyha wrote on X that Russia has destroyed or damaged more than 500 Ukrainian locomotives since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, with more than half of those strikes occurring this year. The minister called this part of “Putin’s terror” aimed at destabilizing Ukraine’s logistics system, and urged international partners to tighten sanctions on Russia and help finance the purchase of new locomotives.
"The thermal signature of a locomotive is very large, and it is almost impossible not to notice. A strike can be devastating, because 50 kilograms of explosives in a diesel locomotive can trigger the detonation of several tons of fuel and completely destroy it," explained former Deputy Minister of Transport of Ukraine Vasyl Shevchenko.
Shevchenko added that a strike on an electric locomotive causes a fire that can paralyze an entire section of track, which is why the Russians aim where the loss of a single train can stop traffic. He said locomotives cannot be replaced quickly — they must be ordered in advance, which can take years. Ukrzaliznytsia is negotiating with international partners, and a contract with the French company Alstom has already been signed; new locomotives are expected next year.
Zelensky ordered strengthening logistics protection
On 15 September President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting of the Office of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, where they discussed strengthening protection of critical infrastructure and logistics. The topics included contracts for the production of protection systems, expanding the electronic warfare component, reorganizing mobile fire groups, and strengthening air defense lines.
According to Holovashchenko, Ukrzaliznytsia has its own response plan to new challenges — in particular the development of early threat detection systems. He said the company has created a monitoring center to track drone and train movements across the country, and Russia’s shift to jet-powered Shahed-type drones, which are considerably faster than earlier models, has complicated and shortened reaction time.
previously the wait time before stopping trains for passenger evacuation was longer;
now they practice more precautionary stops;
the priority has become the technical serviceability of the locomotive, not crew comfort or cost savings;
negotiations are underway to procure new locomotives compatible with the broad gauge of 1520 mm.
Ukrzaliznytsia already had experience with operational responses to security risks on land. At the end of August the carrier temporarily restricted ticket sales from Dnipro and Kamianske to the west of the country due to the situation in Dnipropetrovsk region, where more than 400 incidents of shelling of railway infrastructure were recorded since the start of the year. After the situation stabilized in early September, ticketing was restored to normal.
Earlier Informator reported that Ukrzaliznytsia urged electric train passengers to pay their fares conscientiously and tightened control over fare evaders, because ticket purchase statistics affect the number of cars, the feasibility of services, and the retention of stops on routes. We also wrote that Ukrzaliznytsia explained how to track train delays and the trip route directly in the app — through profile notifications, the train movement board, and the "Route details" button. In addition, Informator wrote that Ukrzaliznytsia is changing electric train fares by introducing, from 15 September, a six-zone payment system that is being rolled out in stages across the regions of Ukraine.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Укрзалізниця посилює захист залізниці від російських атак дронами". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Informator.
