Everyone has known for a long time that russian railroads were one of russia's great weaknesses. That they rely too much on them. The fact that Ukrainians are blowing them up in large numbers now makes me suspicious, that Biden/Sullivan may have told them not to do it. - ThreadSky

derparrot.bsky.social • 75 days ago

Everyone has known for a long time that russian railroads were one of russia's great weaknesses. That they rely too much on them. The fact that Ukrainians are blowing them up in large numbers now makes me suspicious, that Biden/Sullivan may have told them not to do it.

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snegglepuss.bsky.social•75 days ago

Railroads have the problem that they're really expensive to hit, but most of their length is two bits of steel you can replace in hours. It may simply be that longer range weapons are allowing them to hit accurately, since presumably accuracy drops off near the top of the range

tomispev.bsky.social•75 days ago

What if Russians can't repair them fast enough anymore? I remember reading how they're having shortages of railroad workers all over the country, and the rails everywhere lack maintenance. It could take them days to repair.

snegglepuss.bsky.social•75 days ago

The military are going to be the last ones who are short of railroad workers, though secondary strikes on them would be cheeky

tomispev.bsky.social•75 days ago

You're probably right. But if it is like Kraut says that they're targeting locomotives, which Russians can't replace, they won't have any use of the railroads anyway.

snegglepuss.bsky.social•75 days ago

Yep. And hitting those requires pretty good accuracy, there's only so much you can do if you kinda close to a big, heavy metal box

as-tsw.bsky.social•75 days ago

I always thought it’s fairly easy to repair tracks and it is much better to destroy rolling stock like locomotives. Those are very hard to replace and need to diverted from other uses creating ripple effect on the economy as goods aren’t delivered on time.

ifilipau.bsky.social•75 days ago

In the past Ukr mil experts were mentioning that the main problem is that rail roads are pretty quickly fixed - within several hours. Thus, unless you catch explosive/flammable cargo, are of relatively low efficiency.

ifilipau.bsky.social•75 days ago

Otherwise in general the sabotage in occupied territories is under-reported. The russians are hiding it, and the Ukrainians provide a veil of secrecy to their operatives. A lot more is going on there than it seems.

paschka.bsky.social•75 days ago

Yeah, Russian military has its own dedicated branch for railroads. They are aware how critical rails are for them and are arguably much better prepared to keep them running than other militaries.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Railway_Troops

laljax.bsky.social•75 days ago

They need to get bridges, those are a lot harder to repair.

thetenju.bsky.social•75 days ago

That and blowing up trains while on the move. That will create a blockage for a lot longer.

And you can strike those trying to clear the blockage too.

daveantarctica.bsky.social•75 days ago

The positive aspect of a new administration in tge US is that they will be clueless for several weeks and Ukraine will not be bounded by any promise or agreement

derekderek.bsky.social•75 days ago

Except that administration may well be clueless for 4 years. It won't stop them making decisions, good or bad, by design or by accident.

klatez.bsky.social•74 days ago

There's just not a cost effective way to blow up railroads constantly. They cheap and fast to repair specially compared to a cruise missile.
Railroad sabotage should be used as a tactical tool not strategic.

skeetertjones.bsky.social•75 days ago

It makes you wonder that this is reason the Syrian regime fell as well. No one is containing the parties or worried about balance of power. It's Trump's problem now and even if he cuts off aid to Ukraine, I don't see that as the end of the war.

azery.bsky.social•75 days ago

it's incredible how European support for Ukraine has been hamstrung by a US State department terrified of any changes from the status-quo.

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