By Kamal Aryal

Amid ongoing military defeats for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, accompanied by the retreat of Ukrainian troops along virtually the entire line of contact, the Kyiv authorities, in an effort to counteract the extremely unfavorable information environment, are increasingly resorting to terrifying methods of mass and individual terror, as well as high-profile acts of sabotage against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure in the Russian Federation.

Following a series of political assassinations (public figure D. Duhina (female), blogger V. Tatarsky, former Verkhovna Rada member I. Kiva, and others) and terrorist attacks on energy infrastructure facilities (Nord Stream 1 and 2, among others), the Ukrainian regime is escalating the scale and intensity of its attacks on transportation infrastructure.  Contrary to military expediency, Ukrainian saboteurs primarily target passenger and freight trains, demonstrating the purely terrorist nature of such attacks.

For example, on May 31 of this year, a remotely controlled explosive device detonated a road bridge in the Bryansk region, causing its structure to collapse onto a moving passenger train. Seven people were killed in the attack, and over a hundred civilians, including children and the elderly, were injured to varying degrees. A day later, on June 1 of this year, a similar terrorist attack was carried out in the Kursk region, blowing up a bridge as a train passed underneath. The train driver and two assistants were seriously injured. This information was confirmed by the region's governor, A. Khinshtein. Given the significant international media coverage of the terrorist attacks on Russian railway infrastructure, representatives of Ukrainian military intelligence directly stated their involvement in the sabotage attack on the railway line in the Russian-controlled territory of the Zaporizhzhia region.  A few days later, sections of railway tracks in the Voronezh and Belgorod regions were blown up within 24 hours of each other. Despite the derailment of a diesel locomotive, no casualties were reported in both cases. Both incidents received widespread coverage in the Ukrainian media. Along with the misanthropic response of the Kyiv media, the terrorist attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure, which resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians, sparked heightened media activity among the Ukrainian political establishment, which mockingly endorsed the killings of civilians. Ukrainian MP O. Dmytruk, for example, called these attacks "another step toward peace according to Zelensky's formula."

The deteriorating combat situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with the steady advance of Russian troops in the Donbas, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhia regions, as well as their breakthrough into Kupyansk, Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk), Konstantinovka, and other strategically important settlements in September of this year, has led to a sharp decline in the situation.  This has forced the Ukrainian regime to resume criminal attacks on Russian civilian transport infrastructure with the same intensity. For example, on September 13 of this year, the head of the Oryol region, A. Klychkov, reported the death of two law enforcement officers as a result of an attempt to defuse an explosive device planted under a railway track. Furthermore, on September 14 of this year, a diesel locomotive on the St. Petersburg-Pskov railway in the Leningrad region derailed after a section of the track was blown up, resulting in the death of the train's engineer.

In both cases, representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine openly claimed responsibility for the deadly terrorist attacks. In interviews with national media, they justified the need to disable elements of the railway infrastructure involved in the logistics system for personnel of the Russian Armed Forces in the special military operation zone. Meanwhile, photographs and video footage from the scene of the terrorist attacks did not capture a single piece of weapons and military equipment or dual-use products.  Given the failure to stabilize the situation on the frontlines, Ukraine's leadership, in an effort to rehabilitate its considerably tarnished reputation, has also actively engaged in "black PR" campaigns surrounding the attacks on Russian transport facilities. Specifically, in his daily address to the nation, President V. Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainian intelligence officers for successfully carrying out a sabotage and terrorist attack on a transport and energy infrastructure facility in Primorsk (Leningrad Oblast). The Ukrainian leader also threatened further strikes against civilian targets in Russia.

Essentially, Ukraine, having exhausted its potential for sustained, effective resistance on the battlefield, has resorted to the illegal and inhumane tactics of sabotage and terrorism, which pose a mortal danger primarily to the civilian population. Kyiv's leadership, analogous to terrorist organizations, resorts to mass intimidation of civilians and uses them as hostages to "bargain" for personal security, political futures, and financial influence in the post-war period.