Russia is trying to restore railway services in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, adapting them to wartime conditions. They have assembled a train with a "reinforced protection system", including a separate section equipped to counter drones.

Source: Ukraine's Centre for Transport Strategies

Details: Petro Andriushchenko, Head of the Centre for the Study of Occupation, said that "a specially prepared train with a 'reinforced protection system' was assembled at the depot in Melitopol with the involvement of the Russian Ministry of Transport".

Quote from Andriushchenko: "The train includes a separate section with equipment to counter drones, while the drivers' cabs and fuel tanks have been additionally reinforced and the locomotive's running gear has been shielded with metal plating."

Details: The Russian ministry explains that this is necessary to "ensure the safety of locomotive crews and the security of freight" on the Volnovakha-Melitopol route.

Quote from Andriushchenko: "In practice, this is an attempt to run trains in an area of constant danger, where even civilian infrastructure is being forced into a semi‑military mode."

Background:

• In September, partisans from the ATESH resistance movement blew up railway tracks leading to an aircraft plant in Smolensk that produces Kh‑59 missiles for the Russian Defence Ministry.
• Russia has also launched its first container train to annexed Crimea via other temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. The train ran on the Sverdlovsk railway under a specially designed timetable through the occupied parts of Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.
• Earlier, Russia added the occupied Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk to the list of ports open to calls by foreign vessels.

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