Russia makes more precise drones and is using them to attack Ukraine’s vital rail network

Ukraine’s repair crews are racing to match the pace of Russian strikes. Piles of debris from missile attacks are cleared within hours, and utility teams typically restore power and water within a day after most strikes on Kyiv and other cities.

Rail crews operate on a similar timeline. In Kyiv, railway repair team leader Maksym Shevchuk, 30, recalled the day a missile destroyed 39 feet of track. “Traffic on the track was fully restored in half a day,” he said.

Freight volumes carried by rail from January through August 2025 dropped 11.7% year over year, while passenger traffic declined by 4.2%, according to the State Statistics Service, which has not stated a reason for the decline.

Nataliia Kolesnichenko, senior economist at the Kyiv-based Center for Economic Strategy, described the impact so far as “negative but marginal,” crediting rapid repair work and train rerouting that keeps delays to a minimum.

Source: Daily News.

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