Ukraine evacuated over 5,800 trains in September over strike threats: operator

Passengers were evacuated from more than 5,800 Ukrainian train services during September due to the threat of Russian drone strikes, the national railway operator told AFP on Monday.

“In September, a total of 5,831 trains were evacuated due to security threats. On average 205 trains were evacuated per day,” Ukrainian Railways said in a statement.

Russia has fired drones on trains across Ukraine since the first days of its 2022 invasion — destroying hundreds of locomotives and killing several railway workers.

Train services are regularly halted when Russian drones come within 100 kilometres, the company said.

Passengers are forced to disembark and wait in fields or by the side of the track for the threat to clear.

The longest forced stop in September lasted 6.5 hours, Ukrainian Railways told AFP.

The country’s vast train network is a vital form of transport in the country, where journeys between east and west can take 24 hours.

With air travel suspended, it is also one of the main ways into and out of the country.

Last month a train close to the border crossing with Poland was targeted for the first time — triggering fears Russia was trying to sever a vital logistics route between Kyiv and the West.

Moscow said it had targeted a route that was used for weapons deliveries.

Most evacuations were in the frontline regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and the heavily targeted southern Odesa region — where trains play a vital role in agricultural exports via Ukraine’s southern ports.