Russia's Escalating Drone Attacks on Ukraine's Railways
Russia has sharply increased drone attacks on Ukraine's railway system in 2026, striking locomotives, stations, and moving passenger trains.
Ukraine's state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, says 521 locomotives have been hit since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022, with almost 60% of those hits occurring this year, according to figures cited by BBC. Attacks on railway facilities rose from 1,206 in 2025 to 1,700 so far this year. In September alone, 5,831 trains had to be evacuated due to Russian drone attacks, the company told AFP.
The shift is tactical as well as numerical. Russian drones first started attacking moving passenger trains toward the end of 2025. Since then, passenger services have faced repeated delays, disruption, and emergency evacuations. Near the Ukraine-Poland border, a Russian drone hit a locomotive minutes after a special train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European dignitaries had passed through. The risk to travelers is direct.
Other strikes have been lethal. In September 2026, Russian drones struck a passenger bus and a train in southern Ukraine, killing five people, Ukrainian officials said, as reported by Reuters. Ukraine's presidential website reported Russian strikes on Shostka in the Sumy region targeting the railway station and energy infrastructure. The presidency also reported a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv on Sept. 1 and numerous drone strikes on other cities. A memorial page for railway staff lists Yevhen Vlasyuk as killed near the village of Novooleksandrivka in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast as a result of an enemy FPV drone attack, a small camera-guided drone flown by remote control, according to Ukrzaliznytsia memorial.
Moscow denies intent to hit civilians. Russia's defence ministry says it does not target Ukrainian civilians and that railway strikes aim at infrastructure used to transport military personnel and equipment. Kyiv has not framed rail as purely civilian in practice. Ukraine's Ministry of Defence said so-called middle-strike operations in August hit 17 air defense assets and 30 command posts. The exchange reaches across the border. In overnight drone attacks reported on Sept. 25, 2026, Ukraine killed two people in Russia and struck an oil refinery and a passenger train, Russian officials said, as reported by Reuters.
Ukrzaliznytsia head Oleksandr Pertsovskyi has become the public face of the railway's wartime operation, as the company publishes running tallies of damage and evacuations. Rail staff continue to operate dispatch, repair, and evacuation under drone threat.
The broader context here is logistical and economic. Railways move soldiers and weapons, which is why Moscow names them as military targets. They also move civilians, grain, fuel, and industrial goods, which is why disruption spreads quickly beyond the battlefield. An escalation in Russian drone and missile strikes in summer 2026 destroyed factories and warehouses across Ukraine and damaged ports and railways, as reported by Reuters on Oct. 5.
Looking to the months ahead, two pressures point in the same direction. If FPV drones can reliably find moving locomotives, timetables, air-raid protocols, and repair capacity become central to whether passenger confidence holds and freight keeps flowing. And if energy, port, and rail damage adds to factory and warehouse losses, Kyiv's task of financing the war while keeping the domestic economy functioning gets harder, while both sides test how far deep strikes on transport can shape negotiations without triggering a wider response.
