Russia strikes Ukrainian railroads in effort to disrupt Western aid
Russian missiles struck Ukrainian railroad infrastructure and supply depots Wednesday, as the Kremlin called NATO vehicles and supplies “legitimate military targets.”
The strikes — by both sea- and air-borne missiles — took out electric power plants at five railway stations throughout Ukraine, and hit stores of fuel and ammunition.
The strikes were meant to disrupt the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
The coordinated effort to disrupt Ukrainian supply lines came as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared NATO shipments — and any NATO vehicles carrying such shipments within Ukraine — legitimate targets.
“The United States and NATO allies continue to flood Ukraine with weapons,” Shoigu said, according to the state-run agency Tass. “I would like to point out that we view all NATO vehicles that arrive in the country carrying weapons and supplies for the Ukrainian Armed Forces as legitimate military targets.”
The Pentagon has not provided specifics on how supplies are delivered, but says US forces have not been entering Ukraine.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that Russian strikes have not inhibited deliveries of US weapons and supplies.
“We know that material — those weapons, those supplies — are getting into Ukrainian hands,” Kirby said.
He declined to provide any details about the ongoing deliveries, other than to say the US is constantly changing the way it gets supplies into Ukraine.
“Those ways change as they must,” Kirby said. “There’s redundancy built into the process.”
Air raid sirens also rang out in the cities of Cherkasy, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday.
With Post wires
