Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has urged partners for urgent help with locomotives after another hit on railway infrastructure near the Polish border.
Ukraine's railways remain one of Russia's favorite targets — and the damage tally is now counted in the hundreds of locomotives. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha says Russia has destroyed or damaged more than 500 Ukrainian locomotives since the start of the full-scale invasion, and he has appealed to partners for urgent help replacing them.
According to Sybiha, another locomotive took a direct hit overnight during a Russian strike on railway infrastructure in Volyn Oblast, close to the border with Poland. Ukraine's State Emergency Service released photos from the scene showing the damaged, fire-scarred locomotive.
Of the more than 500 locomotives damaged or destroyed, more than half were lost in 2026 alone, as attacks on the railway network have intensified and increasingly reach western Ukraine. Days earlier, kamikaze drones also hit train stations in Lutsk, Kovel and Fastiv, with emergency crews working among damaged carriages and tracks.
Sybiha called on partners to help locate 1,520mm-gauge locomotives and fund the purchase of new ones. The railway remains critical to the country's functioning: it is the network used to evacuate civilians from frontline areas and to move food, grain, and other essential cargo.
The railway means evacuation, food, medicine, and a lifeline for millions of people in frontline communities, so every damaged locomotive lands directly on civilians. Volunteers Support Ukraine continues to help people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow.
