Ukrainian troops destroyed a Russian fuel train in the Zaporizhzhia region
15 December, 2024 Ukrainian Defense Forces Destroy Russian Fuel Train in Zaporizhia. Freeze frame from RBC Video The Ukrainian Defense Forces have destroyed a Russian train with 40 tanks of fuel on the territory of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia region.
The defenders managed to destroy 40 tanks of Russian fuel worth £4 million. RBC-Ukraine reported on this, citing its own sources. According to the sources, on December 14, the SSU, in cooperation with the Tavria operational-strategic group, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, the SOF, and the Unmanned Systems Forces, conducted an operation to cut off the logistics routes of fuel supplies from Crimea to the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region.
According to the media, at the first stage of the operation, special forces from the 13th Main Directorate of the SSU's Department of Military Counterintelligence organized sabotage to blow up the tracks while a train with tanks was moving near the village of Oleksiyivka, Bilmatsky district. This led to the train stopping, which allowed the fighters of the 14th Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Forces to strike with drones, which led to the fire of some of the tanks.
Agents of the SSU lay explosives to stop a train with fuel.
Photo credits: RBC
After that, the air reconnaissance units of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine adjusted the missile strike from the HIMARS MLRS of the Tavria operational-strategic group. The missiles hit the locomotive and the outermost cars, making it impossible to stretch the affected train to save the surviving tanks and reduce the fire. In the final stage, the DIU soldiers finished off the surviving tanks with the help of attack drones.
The media reported the special operation destroyed a locomotive and 40 tank cars. Based on the video, OSINTer @moklasen was able to geolocate the location of the train between the villages of Oleksiyivka, Bilmatskyi district, and Zelenyi Hai, Polohivskyi district, Zaporizhzhia region.
The site of the damage to the fuel train. Deepstate map
In addition to directly damaging the train, this attack will temporarily disable the only railroad line that supplied Russian troops in the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia region.
Previous attacks on trains
This is not the first attempt to attack Russian railroad logistics in the area, although it was the first to involve such a large number of forces and equipment.
A locomotive in the FPV drone lens, a freeze frame from the Ronins' video
In late June, a Ronin UAV unit of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade published a video of them trying to hit a locomotive with a long-range FPV drone near the city of Tokmak.
However, in early August, the same unit made another attempt to attack railroad logistics, again targeting a locomotive. However, both of them were unsuccessful.
The burning of a damaged train with oil products. Photo credits: Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation
In September, the Ukrainian military successfully hit a train carrying oil products near Tokmak using a UAV.
Three fuel tanks burned down.