KYIV – Ukraine suggested Monday that its agents were responsible for an explosion on a Russian railway bridge used to transport ammunition. This appears to be the latest successful operation targeting infrastructure deep behind enemy lines as Ukrainian forces battle advancing Russian troops.
Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency said on Monday that the explosion on the railway bridge in Russia's Samara region – about 650 miles from the Ukrainian border – occurred at around 6 a.m. local time. “Use in the next few weeks is impossible,” the agency said in a post on the social media app Telegram.
The GUR did not directly claim responsibility for the attack, but it would not be the first time that Ukrainian security services have targeted military railway lines in Russia – a hybrid warfare technique that has increased since Russia regained offensive initiative along the front line in Ukraine in 2019.
Zelensky is unsure how he can call up more troops as Russian forces advance
According to Ukrainian intelligence officials, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was responsible for explosions on railway lines between Russia and North Korea in the Buryatia region, about 3,750 miles east of Ukraine, in December.
“Such actions are definitely important. “These are legitimate military targets that must be destroyed – that is, anything that allows the Russian Federation to field, deploy and deploy a troop buildup,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a military analyst at Ukraine’s state-run National Institute for Strategic Studies.
It is unclear to what extent the attacks have prevented Russia from resupplying its troops at the front. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said that Russia has a significant ammunition advantage, firing seven times as much as Ukrainian forces. While Kiev is no stranger to grenade shortages, the deficit has become particularly acute as security aid from Washington has stopped and the White House's proposed $60 billion aid package has stalled in Congress.
The scarcity of resources on the battlefield – Ukrainian commanders said they also lacked sufficient personnel – allowed Russia to advance in recent weeks and capture the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka and several surrounding villages. Ukrainian officials have privately indicated that Kiev is unlikely to mount another counteroffensive this year, especially without an increase in Western aid soon.
In Ukraine's last stand in Avdiivka and its “path of death”
As a result, guerrilla tactics, such as the explosion on the railway bridge on Monday morning, have become more important. While attacks on Russian territory were rare in the first year of the war and were once considered beyond Ukraine's capabilities, they have since become the norm. Some are carried out using drones, while others require on-site operations to plant explosives.
Russian officials confirmed an explosion on the bridge but said damage was minimal. Although train services were suspended, Russian emergency services told Russian news agency Interfax that the bridge supports were not damaged and repairs would only take a few hours.
“Sappers found and neutralized another explosive device, an unexploded bomb, at the site where the railway bridge over the Chapayevka River was blown up,” said Alexander Chinshtein, MP for the Samara region, on Telegram.
The GUR also said on Monday that its hackers had gained access to the Russian Defense Ministry's servers and stolen secret military documents. The claim could not be independently verified.
“The information obtained allows us to determine the full structure of the system of the Russian Defense Ministry and its units,” the GUR said in a post on Telegram.
Anastacia Galouchka in Kiev and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report.