Ukraine’s new strategy to ‘sabotage’ Putin by targeting Russian railway lines | Michael Binyon

Ukraine’s new strategy to ‘sabotage’ Putin by targeting Russian railway lines | Michael Binyon

Warfare means uh hitting behind the
Enemy Lines and obviously the for the
ukrainians they would like to be able to
Target uh railway lines and other key
military installations like ammunition
dumps or assembly points or things of
that kind that are beyond the actual old
International Frontier between Russia
and Ukraine they would like to hit
things inside uh Russia now Ukrainian
forces have been attacking inside Russia
the city of belgaro which is a Russian
city very close to the Ukrainian border
has been attacked several times but it
doesn’t look as though they’ve been
using some of these newer long range
missiles that have been supplied by the
West uh and if they have been then
they’ve been sort of you know making it
unclear which exact weapons have been
used because the US and most of Europe
have put conditions on the use of these
weapons um but the ukrainians certainly
have been attacking inside Russia I’m
Michael binan and I’m a leader writer
for the times and was a foreign
correspondent covering Moscow in Soviet
times and various other countries it
seems that uh the uh ukrainians have
been targeting Russian railway lines
this follows an announcement by the
Russian defense minister shyu that
Russia would Target Ukrainian railway
lines and attack those Supply chains
where the weapons promised by the
Americans are being delivered to Ukraine
right now or should be delivered and the
Russians announced that they would try
to hit those trains transporting these
new weapons to Ukrainian uh military
sites well it’s obvious why the Russians
would try to disrupt uh supplies
reaching the front uh that are coming
through from Poland or across the
Ukrainian border and they have been
trying to interdict uh the supply of
weapons for some time uh and now that
the Americans have announced that they
have released the ammunition and the
budget and all that Ukraine wants it’s
simply a question of getting the stuff
there so the Russians clearly want to
disrupt the network now in response the
ukrainians clearly would like to disrupt
supplies to the Russian side which are
coming from within Russia and are mostly
moved by train it’s the obvious way to
transport ammunition and heavy military
equipment and they have been apparently
targeting Russian Railways uh the
railway system of course was all built
in Soviet times so it used to be a
unified system and the lines would go
the railway lines would go straight
across the border from Russia into
Ukraine in fact I’ve done that several
times myself crossed from one to the
other those lines of course are are cut
completely now and have been for some
time but those lines are vital for
bringing supplies up to the front for
Russian soldiers uh in eastern Ukraine
and the ukrainians clearly would like to
to stop that um Supply as as much as
they can of course the first thing that
the ukrainians would have to do would be
to uh pinpoint the actual strategic
railway lines leading to the Russian
front uh and they know pretty well where
these are I mean they know exactly where
these are because uh in the old days
Trends used to run straight across these
Frontiers and along this unified Railway
system it’s the same gauge uh it’s all
the broad gauge for Russia and Ukraine
uh so they can bring up supplies and
indeed even military equipment on their
own Railway system and then perhaps uh
Target the Russian Railways just across
the border it depends where they want to
hit I mean clearly strategic points
marshalling yards assembly points
Railway Junctions those are the key
things they would like to disrupt and if
they’re able to use uh longer range
missiles tactical weapons they can
probably pinpoint exactly where they
would like to strike and it depends on
both their own equipment and the supply
of their own ammunition as to whether
they’ll be able to do that of course
there is a difficulty because uh the
ukrainians have weapons that can strike
quite deep into Russia but these are
Western weapons and mostly they are
supplied with the condition that they
are not used to attack uh Russia deep
inside its own territory uh the idea is
that NATO is ready to supply Ukraine
with defense Ive weapons to stop Russian
attacks air defense and that sort of
thing but they’re not willing to have
things like the Patriot missiles or
indeed the toist missile that Germany is
ready to supply at some point if they if
they go ahead with it uh used for
attacking Russian soil um they can
attack those areas of Ukraine occupied
by Russia but the condition is they
can’t attack Russia itself uh now that’s
quite a difficult condition because of
course Warfare means uh hitting behind
the Enemy Lines and obviously the for
the ukrainians they would like to be
able to Target uh railway lines and
other key military installations like
ammunition dumps or assembly points or
things of that kind that are beyond the
actual old International Frontier
between Russia and Ukraine they would
like to hit things inside uh Russia now
Ukrainian forces have been attacking
inside Russia the city of belgaro which
is a Russian city very close to the
Ukrainian border has been attacked
several times but it doesn’t look as
though they’ve been using some of these
newer long range missiles that have been
supplied by the West uh and if they have
been then they’ve been sort of you know
making it unclear which exact weapons
have been used because the US and most
of Europe have put conditions on the use
of these weapons um but the ukrainians
certainly have been attacking inside
Russia and they’ve used drones even to
go as far as Moscow with a few symbolic
attacks uh on Moscow I mean they didn’t
do much damage but they they did appear
and they was meant to send a message
saying we can reach deep into Russia now
crier is a slightly different thing
because Crimea is formerly still part of
Ukraine although occupied by Russia
since
2014 uh and therefore there’s no ban or
there’s no kind of limitation on uh the
ukrainians using their weapons to attack
strategic Targets in Crimea and that
could include railway lines as well as
obviously uh supply lines ports uh the
famous Kirch Bridge which links Crimea
to to Russia across the sea of azof uh
those have been attacked and quite
ferociously I think they will be
extremely angry they will obviously feel
that this is going to uh an upset and
worry and and frighten the Russian
population who up till now I have to say
have been fairly isolated from this war
it hasn’t really affected most people uh
apart from obviously those uh people
called up to serve in the front line and
there are very many of them and very
many have been killed which affects the
families and their friends and and lots
of people like that but ordinary
Russians uh living in towns fairly far
say from the front line they’re not
affected at all but if Ukrainian
missiles come over and set fire to oil
depos or ammunition dumps or things of
that kind this is quite scary for the
Russians who will begin to say well are
we are we getting into a state of kind
of Total War up till now they’ve been
told it’s a special military operation
the Russians haven’t used the word War
though it’s begun to slip out a little
bit in some of the official speeches uh
but it does look more and more to
Russians if attacks on their own soil
are continuing this is a real war and I
mean the effect would be to Rally them I
think behind Putin and behind the
Russian effort to uh uh to beat the
ukrainians it’s t fortat really I mean
the the Russians have been targeting
energy pipelines uh supply lines energy
Grid electricity uh oil things of that
kind which are vital for Ukraine they’ve
been doing this for some time and I have
to say it’s pretty effective because if
you knock out uh electricity generating
stations then you leave huge huge parts
of the country in sort of blackout and
nothing much works and that is what
they’ve been doing especially uh
ferociously recently uh all around the
city of khv uh they have been attacking
supply lines large parts of Ukraine are
without power the ukrainians have been
remarkably skilled and uh inventive in
getting these systems up and running
again uh but it it’s pretty difficult to
get you know oil and and electricity and
things flowing when the whole system is
disrupted I mean the British found
exactly the same during the second world
war during the Blitz the Germans also
targeted uh you know essential supply
lines including Railways and it was
pretty ingenious of the British to
manage to get these systems working
sometimes within only a day or two uh of
course similarly the Germans tried to
keep their systems running when they
were just as heavily probably more
heavily attacked by the allies during
the second world war so it is possible
to repair these things but at some cost
uh and uh the Ukrainian attacks on
Russia clearly the Russians can repair
the damage as quickly as possible
there’s plenty of Manpower there’s uh
there’s essential supplies that that can
do it but it’s costly and the Damage
could be quite severe it’s quite
difficult to tell because there have
been a number of attacks that have been
sort of unexplained I mean they look
like sabotage uh from within Russia a
sabotage of installations I mean there
was no obvious rocket attacks and the
ukrainians didn’t admit to um targeting
some some sites that have been destroyed
or hit or damaged within Russia uh and
there has been talk about you know
partisans within Russia uh causing
damage well particularly in Crimea
that’s where um these sort of partisan
attacks have happened now ukrainians
have never really admitted full
responsibility for that sort of thing
because that is um as it were a bit of a
red flag both to the Western allies who
are not necessarily going to support
partisan attacks within Russia and it’s
a problem that the Russians would
respond to pretty quickly they would
clamp down and they would send or have
been trying to use um spies and
infiltrators within Ukraine to commit
sabotage within the country uh and that
has happened fairly often the ukrainians
have been expecting a big Russian
offensive for some time now and they
they thought of think it will be this
this coming month in May because the the
ground is now firm and dry and not
Frozen and uh it’s it’s good sort of
fighting weather as it were uh the
Russians have been amassing a large
Force just across the border they’ve
getting ready for some big operation and
of course the Russians now have a
massive incentive to get on with this as
soon as possible before these new
weapons reach Ukraine that’s the whole
point of the Russians trying to uh
sabotage the rail network in Ukraine to
stop weapons reaching the front because
once those weapons get there
particularly air defenses which is what
the ukrainians need then it’s going to
be much more difficult for the Russians
to attack uh across the front line and
seize more territory equally it’s going
to be quite difficult for the ukrainians
to hold on to the territory they’ve got
if the Russians get there quickly and
the ukrainians don’t have either the
Manpower or the ammunition to to to Ward
them off they have admitted that things
are very difficult on the Eastern Front
that is all along the the zone that the
Russians occupy and that they are slowly
being pushed out there are certain big
towns that have fallen adva is one and I
think there’s another one uh that the
Russians are now targeting which are
strategic points all along the front
line where they’re gradually pushing the
ukrainians back and the ukrainians need
to be pretty Resolute and they need the
Manpower which they haven’t got they
need the weapons which they haven’t got
and therefore there’s the incentive for
the Russians to to launch a big attack
as soon as possible I don’t think the
ukrainians even with the new weapons
have got uh a very good chance of
retaking all the territory lost uh the
Russians have put up very very strong
defensive lines all along that large
sthe of Eastern territory that they now
occupy and these lines I mean several
defensive lines you know first one and
then a further back and then and they
consist of the usual sort of tank traps
and Mine Fields and well absolutely
everything you can think of and you know
special units ready to to to to um take
on first wave of Ukrainian attackers uh
the fact is it’s always much easier uh
to defend than to attack especially
across a fortified Frontier uh so it’s
going to be very hard for the ukrainians
to overcome those lines of defense and
take back territory that is now and has
been occupied by Russia for more than a
year or so uh whereas the Russians uh
they know where their own defensive
lines are they know how to go around
those and then how to get across and and
attack further against the ukrainians
push their defensive line further
forward we’ll just have to see what
happens whether the ukrainians have
enough weapons they certainly have the
uh the morale and the willingness but
they are short of Manpower and that is a
big problem uh some soldiers have been
on the front line for more than a year
they’re tired they’re weary they want to
be relieved uh a lot of young people are
increasingly reluctant to join the Army
partly because without weapons they’re
sitting ducks they they you know there’s
a very high casualty rate uh whether
these new weapons will will boost morale
and mean that more people will join up
or whether the Ukrainian government is
going to have to lower the military
conscription which they’re talking about
doing we don’t know I mean it’s it’s
it’s a it’s a difficult problem because
uh the Ukraine has well Ukrainian uh
Manpower of course is considerably less
than the Russians the population is less
than a quarter of Russians so they don’t
have the huge uh human resources to draw
on

“It looks like sabotage within Russia.”

Ukraine deploys a new strategy by targeting “vital” Russian railway lines in new strategy to stop weapons going to their front line in Ukraine, explains The Times’s Michael Binyon.

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