Bridge section collapses in Russia after Ukrainian strike
Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged a railway bridge and tracks at three locations in Russia’s Bryansk Region, causing several trains to derail, acting Governor Egor Kovalchuk said on Monday. No injuries have been reported, he added.
Part of a bridge collapsed on the Dyatkovo–Lyudinovo rail section, sending ten cars off the tracks. A separate strike in Unecha District derailed another 18 empty freight cars, according to Kovalchuk. Repair work at the Unecha site will begin after Russian National Guard personnel inspect the area.
A third attack also damaged tracks in Navlya District, but did not disrupt train traffic or cause injuries, the governor said.
Russian railway authorities have since confirmed that train service in the region has been temporarily disrupted and announced that buses have been organized to compensate while repairs at the damaged site have already begun.
Kiev has increasingly targeted Russian railways in recent months. In June, a drone struck the locomotive of a Moscow–Simferopol passenger train, killing the assistant driver and injuring the driver. That same month, another drone struck the cabin of a commuter train at Peschaniki station in Bryansk Region, injuring the assistant driver.
Another strike damaged a train cab in the town of Suzemka in March, though no one was injured and service ultimately continued.
Just last week, a Ukrainian drone also attacked a passenger train in Samara Region, more than 500 km from the Russia-Ukraine border. Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said on Friday that the strike damaged the electric locomotive and the first car of the train, but that it did not derail and there were no injuries reported among the passengers.
Moscow has long accused Kiev of resorting to terrorist tactics and deliberately targeting civilians and non-combatants in an attempt to spread fear among the Russian population and out of desperation over suffering repeated battlefield setbacks.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier this month that Kiev’s foreign backers have created a “monster” that could eventually go rogue and endanger the lives of Western civilians while conducting terrorist attacks.
Russia has responded by intensifying its own strikes on Ukrainian military infrastructure and defense facilities, as well as severely disrupting Ukrainian shipping through the Black Sea and fuel supplies in other parts of the country that Moscow considers important to Kiev’s military logistics.
